Following two significant holdings for defendants in False Claims Act (FCA) matters predicated on the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), associate Nina Shaw and partners Eric Sitarchuk, Alison Tanchyk, Jaclyn Unis Whittaker, and William McEnroe write in Law360 that a “seismic shift” has occurred in FCA kickback causation.
The importance of the United States v. Hathaway decision, one of two significant rulings on FCA kickback causation from the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, is difficult to overstate, say the lawyers in the Law360 Expert Analysis. “With Cairns and Hathaway, there are now two carefully reasoned appellate decisions that unequivocally hold that the 2010 amendments to the AKS require but-for causation to prove false claims resulting from an AKS violation.”