U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Upholds $237 Million Judgment Against Toumey Healthcare System

On July 2, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a $237 million verdict against Toumey Healthcare System (“Toumey) for violations of the federal Stark law (“Stark”) and, consequently, the federal False Claims Act. The verdict marks the latest decision in the government’s longstanding legal battle against Toumey, a community hospital in South Carolina, and serves as a reminder to healthcare providers of the significant liability that can result from compensation arrangements that fail to comply with Stark’s safe harbor requirements.

In this case, the lower court determined that Toumey entered into part-time employment agreements with physicians that violated Stark. The agreements violated Stark’s limitations on physician compensation arrangements by varying with, or taking into account, the volume or value of the physicians’ referrals to the hospital. Under the False Claims Act, claims submitted for payment arising out of referrals prohibited by Stark constitute false claims, and subject providers to treble damages. In this case, the jury found that Toumey knowingly submitted 21,730 false claims, which amounted to $39.3 million in Medicare payments. The court awarded treble damages as well as other penalties.

The Fourth Circuit’s decision analyzed Toumey’s argument that since Toumey relied upon the advice of lawyers in determining that the compensation arrangements were permissible under Stark, Toumey could not have knowingly violated the False Claims Act. In rejecting this argument, the Fourth Circuit highlighted the fact that Toumey consulted with multiple attorneys, one of which raised serious concerns about the compensation arrangements, and that Toumey effectively lawyer-shopped for legal opinions that approved the employment contracts. Accordingly, the case should provide notice to providers to proceed with caution if they are contemplating obtaining multiple legal opinions in order to determine that an arrangement is compliant with health care fraud and abuse laws because of how the opinions may be scrutinized in hindsight.

The Court also upheld the lower court’s award of damages and other penalties. The Court determined that the damages properly took into account all referrals by the physicians to the hospital, not just those referrals addressed by the impermissible compensation arrangements, and also that the $237 million verdict did not violate the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eight Amendment or the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Further, in a technical discussion of how the compensation arrangements violated Stark, the Court cited testimony that compensation arrangements that pay a physician an amount greater than the physician’s collections demonstrates that the arrangements are not fair market value and instead evidences that the hospital intends to reward the physician for the physician’s referrals to the hospital. Toumey argued that the compensation arrangement did not, on its face, vary with the volume or value of referrals. The Court, however, agreed with the government, finding that under Stark, aggregate compensation cannot vary with the volume or value of referrals, or otherwise take into account the volume or value of referrals. In addition to the payments being above fair market value, the physician’s referrals for personally performed services included a facility fee payable to the hospital and, as such, the productivity bonus in the compensation arrangement varied based on the amount of referrals to the hospital.

In general, the Toumey case highlights the complexity in analyzing physician compensation arrangement under Stark, and demonstrates the amount of liability that can attach to impermissible financial arrangements between physicians and health care entities to which the physicians’ refer patients. Wachler & Associates continues to stay up to date on all legal developments under Stark, as well as state laws governing physician referrals. Our attorneys regularly analyze physician compensation arrangements and other contracts under Stark and other healthcare fraud and abuse laws. If you or your health care entity have any questions regarding Stark, physician compensation arrangements, or other healthcare laws governing the relationships between healthcare providers, please contact an experienced healthcare attorney at (248) 544-0888 or via email at wapc@wachler.com. You may also subscribe to our health law blog to stay up to date on all developments in healthcare regulatory compliance by adding your email at the top right of this page.