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Corporate Management, Incorporated, et al. v. United States, ex rel. James Aldridge, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 21-60568, 22-60145 · judgment August 21, 2023


Certiorari denied · January 22, 2024
Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability (95% interval 4%–7%)

Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Fifth Circuit decision below, a circuit split argued in the petition, and a petition filed soon after the judgment below.

Questions presented

  1. Where the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) makes payments pursuant to a “pay and chase” policy, are the certifications of Stone County Hospital, Inc. (SCH) “material” to CMS’s payment decisions as required by the False Claims Act (FCA)?

  2. Where the Government alleges that Ted and Julie Cain’s salaries are excessive and where those salaries were disclosed annually in cost reports submitted to the Government without objection by the Government, did Defendants knowingly make objectively false claims in seeking reimbursement for those disclosed and accepted salaries?

  3. When the Government pursues recovery for allegedly “unreasonable” salary claims by bypassing Medicare’s administrative process and brings a FCA action in lieu of the statutory administrative remedy, is the Congressionally established administrative remedy the exclusive remedy for recovery of CMS overpayments?

  4. Does the FCA’s “good cause” requirement for extensions of the election period allow the Government to obtain 18 sealed extensions and conduct a secret investigation for 8 years before intervening, where the reasons for the extensions have never been disclosed, constitute overreaching action by the Government in violation of due process, and permit dismissal of the complaint as a sanction?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
William Lee Guice III
Rushing & Guice, PLLC

For respondent
John Frederick Hawkins
Hawkins Law, P.C.

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 22 2024
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jan 03 2024
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/19/2024.
  3. Dec 14 2023
    Waiver of right of respondent James Aldridge to respond filed.
  4. Nov 30 2023
    Waiver of right of respondent U.S., ex rel, James Aldridge, et al. to respond filed.
  5. Nov 17 2023
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 21, 2023)