Robert Salcido Profiled as a Law360 Health Care MVP
Robert Salcido, a partner in Akin Gump’s health care practice, was selected by Law360 as one of only four health care MVPs for 2012. On December 11, Law360 published Salcido’s profile, which discussed his successful representation of nationwide nursing home company GGNSC Holdings LLC dba Golden Living, in an $895 million False Claims Act (FCA) case.
The U.S. Department of Justice had claimed that Golden Living and a medical equipment supplier had violated the Anti-Kickback Statute. DOJ had asked the court for up to $895 million in treble damages and civil penalties for the alleged false claims.
Salcido took the case to trial, which is unusual for FCA cases and, more unusually, won. He notes, “It is extraordinarily rare that any large health care entity ever litigates an FCA case against the government. The industry standard is to settle at a premium over and above what the case is worth.”
He adds, “The government, it appeared, had fundamentally misunderstood the facts behind the arrangement. It contended that the contractual relationship ... was priced below fair market value when it was clear that the contractual price was the result of competitive bidding. We thought, and the court found, that it was unassailable that the parties were operating in good faith.”
The article can be read in its entirety here.
