US Supreme Court to decide on federal fraud claim over woman's death

On Tuesday, the US highest court srtuggled to get a concrete decision whether the federal contractors could be sued for defrauding a federal case that involves a 19-year old woman who suffered a 2009 seizure at a mental facility which led to her death.

According to Reuters, the parents of Massachusetts woman, Yarushka Rivera, claimed that Universal Health Services Inc., owner of the said mental health facility, provided "gravely inadequate treatment" and used "unsupervised and unqualified personnel." The lawsuit they filed accuses King of Prussia to have defrauded the government for failing to comply with all the  necessary requirements. They added that the Pennsylvania facility is getting a funding from Medicaid to treat low-income people.

Yahoo noted that Rivera died in 2009. She was rushed in a mental health center at Lawrence, Massachusetts after she had a seizure. Julio Escobar and Carmen Correa both filed the lawsuit against the health care giant in Boston on year 2011. They added that they got an information which says more than 20 treatment providers in the Lawrence facility, including the nurse who prescribed medication to Rivera, were not properly licensed or even supervised as required by state law and federal regulations.

The parents are now suing them under False Claims Act which allows individuals to make claims that the federal government has been defrauded.

CNBC published that during the oral argument, liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan signaled their support for the parents' claims. Sotomayor argued that billing services that were not carried out is like a government contractor providing guns that don't shoot. However, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said that companies should not necessarily be liable for fraud just because they don't follow every rule of procedures.

Previously, in 2014, a federal judge already dismissed the lawsuit. The Boston-based 1^st US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in 2015. The Universal Health Services asked the Supreme Court to resolve what kind of lawsuits can be brought under the False Claims Act. 

Tags

Massachusetts, Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, False Claims Act, Federal Defraud, Medicaid

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