Terence Lynam Quoted in Law360 on $300 Million FCA Case

Akin Gump litigation partner Terence Lynam has been quoted in the Law360 article “Nursing Homes Fight To Keep Evidence In $300M FCA Suit,” regarding a False Claims Act (FCA) case in which Lynam represents the defendants.

U.S. ex rel. Ruckh v. CMC II LLC et al. involves a whistleblower’s claims that several skilled nursing facilities overbilled for Medicare and Medicaid. The article reports that the companies are accused of exaggerating patient illnesses and overstating the amount of care provided.

In a filing Wednesday, the defendants argued, “Relator is claiming damages of over $300 million, mainly based on documentation issues that her experts identified in the resident files. Because the stakes are very high, and the trial should be a search for truth, this relatively small amount of additional records should not be excluded.”

Lynam told Law360 the whistleblower is overplaying the effects of the late production: “We don’t believe they’re prejudiced because they now have [the data assessments] with the expert reports several months before trial.” He added that the late production was made in “good faith,” noting that the defendants shared 1.1 million documents last year during discovery. “When you produce 1.1 million documents, there’s always the possibility that something wasn’t in the file, especially when that file goes back to 2008,” he said.

Akin Gump health partner Robert Salcido is also part of the defense team.