Source: https://www.hbsslaw.com/hagens-berman-international-whistleblower-center/fcaqui-tam-state-statutes/tennessee
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 14:52:35+00:00

Document:
This act shall be known and may be cited as the "False Claims Act".
(1) “Claim” includes any request or demand for money, property, or services made to any employee, officer, or agent of the state or of any political subdivision, or to any contractor, grantee, or other recipient, whether under contract or not, if any portion of the money, property, or services requested or demanded issued from, or was provided by, the state (hereinafter “state funds”) or by any political subdivision thereof (hereinafter “political subdivision funds”).
(C) Acts in reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the information. Proof of specific intent to defraud is not required.
(3) “Political subdivision” includes any city, town, municipality, county, including any county having a metropolitan form of government, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries.
(4) “Prosecuting authority” refers to the county counsel, city attorney, or other local government official charged with investigating, filing, and conducting civil legal proceedings on behalf of, or in the name of, a particular political subdivision.
§ 4-18-103. Liability for violations.
(d) This section does not apply to any controversy involving an amount of less than five hundred dollars ($500) in value, unless the controversy arose from a violation of chapter 58 of this title. For purposes of this subsection (d), "controversy" means any one (1) or more false claims submitted by the same person in violation of this chapter.
§ 4-18-104. Investigation and prosecution.
(a) (1) The attorney general and reporter shall diligently investigate violations under § 4-18-103 involving state funds. If the attorney general and reporter finds that a person has violated or is violating § 4-18-103, the attorney general and reporter may bring a civil action under this section against that person.
(2) If the attorney general and reporter brings a civil action under this subsection (a) on a claim involving political subdivision funds as well as state funds, the attorney general and reporter shall, on the same date that the complaint is filed in this action, serve by mail with "return receipt requested" a copy of the complaint on the appropriate prosecuting authority.
(b) (1) The prosecuting authority of a political subdivision shall diligently investigate violations under § 4-18-103 involving political subdivision funds. If the prosecuting authority finds that a person has violated or is violating § 4-18-103, the prosecuting authority may bring a civil action under this section against that person.
(c) (1) A person may bring a civil action for a violation of this chapter for the person and either for the state of Tennessee in the name of the state, if any state funds are involved, or for a political subdivision in the name of the political subdivision, if political subdivision funds are involved, or for both the state and political subdivision if state and political subdivision funds are involved. The person bringing the action shall be referred to as the qui tam plaintiff. Once filed, the action may be dismissed only with the written consent of the court, taking into account the best interests of the parties involved and the public purposes behind this chapter.
(3) On the same day as the complaint is filed pursuant to subdivision (c)(2), the qui tam plaintiff shall serve by mail with "return receipt requested" the attorney general and reporter with a copy of the complaint and a written disclosure of substantially all material evidence and information the person possesses.
(7) (A) Within fifteen (15) days after receiving a complaint alleging violations that exclusively involve political subdivision funds, the attorney general and reporter shall forward copies of the complaint and written disclosure of material evidence and information to the appropriate prosecuting authority for disposition, and shall notify the qui tam plaintiff of the transfer.
(8) (A) Within fifteen (15) days after receiving a complaint alleging violations that involve both state and political subdivision funds, the attorney general and reporter shall forward copies of the complaint and written disclosure to the appropriate prosecuting authority, and shall coordinate its review and investigation with those of the prosecuting authority.
(d) (1) No court shall have jurisdiction over an action brought under subsection (c) against a member of the general assembly, a member of the state judiciary, an elected official in the executive branch of the state, or a member of the governing body or other elected official of any political subdivision if the action is based on evidence or information known to the state or political subdivision when the action was brought.
(3) (A) No court shall have jurisdiction over an action under this chapter based upon the public disclosure of allegations or transactions in a criminal, civil, or administrative hearing, in an investigation, report, hearing, or audit conducted by or at the request of the general assembly, comptroller of the treasury, or governing body of a political subdivision, or by the news media, unless the action is brought by the attorney general and reporter or the prosecuting authority of a political subdivision or the person bringing the action is an original source of the information.
(B) For purposes of subdivision (d)(3)(A), "original source" means an individual, who has direct and independent knowledge of the information on which the allegations are based, who voluntarily provided the information to the state or political subdivision before filing an action based on that information, and whose information provided the basis or catalyst for the investigation, hearing, audit, or report that led to the public disclosure as described in subdivision (d)(3)(A).
(f) (1) If the state or political subdivision elects not to proceed, the qui tam plaintiff shall have the same right to conduct the action as the attorney general and reporter or prosecuting authority would have had if it had chosen to proceed under subsection (c). If the state or political subdivision so requests, and at its expense, the state or political subdivision shall be served with copies of all pleadings filed in the action and supplied with copies of all deposition transcripts.
(g) (1) (A) If the attorney general and reporter initiates an action pursuant to subsection (a) or assumes control of an action initiated by a prosecuting authority pursuant to subdivision (b)(3)(A), the office of the attorney general and reporter shall receive a fixed thirty-three percent (33%) of the proceeds of the action or settlement of the claim, which shall be used to support its ongoing investigation and prosecution of false claims.
(7) For purposes of this section, "proceeds" include civil penalties as well as double or treble damages as provided in § 4-18-103.
(h) (1) The court may stay an act of discovery of the person initiating the action for a period of not more than sixty (60) days if the attorney general and reporter or local prosecuting authority shows that the act of discovery would interfere with an investigation or a prosecution of criminal or civil matter arising out of the same facts, regardless of whether the attorney general and reporter or local prosecuting authority proceeds with the action. This showing shall be conducted in camera.
§ 44-18-105. Prohibition against preventing employees from disclosing information – Violations – Remedies.
(a) No employer shall make, adopt, or enforce any rule, regulation, or policy preventing an employee from disclosing information to a government or law enforcement agency or from acting in furtherance of a false claims action, including investigating, initiating, testifying, or assisting in an action filed or to be filed under Section 4 of this Act.
(b) No employer shall discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, harass, deny promotion to, or in any other manner discriminate against, an employee in the terms and conditions of employment because of lawful acts done by the employee on behalf of the employee or others in disclosing information to a government or law enforcement agency or in furthering a false claims action, including investigation for, initiation of, testimony for, or assistance in, an action filed or to be filed under Section 4 of this Act.
(c) An employer who violates subsection (b) shall be liable for all relief necessary to make the employee whole, including reinstatement with the same seniority status that the employee would have had but for the discrimination, two (2) times the amount of back pay, interest on the back pay, compensation for any special damage sustained as a result of the discrimination, and, where appropriate, punitive damages. In addition, the defendant shall be required to pay litigation costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees. An employee may bring an action in the appropriate chancery court of the state for the relief provided in this subsection.
§ 4-18-106. Statute of limitations.
(a) A civil action under Section 4 of this Act may not be filed more than three (3) years after the date of discovery by the official of the state or political subdivision charged with responsibility to act in the circumstances or, in any event, no more than ten (10) years after the date on which the violation of Section 3 of this Act is committed.
(b) A civil action under Section 4 of this Act may be brought for activity prior to July 1, 2001, if the limitations period set in subsection (a) has not lapsed.
(c) In any action brought under Section 4 of this Act, the state, the political subdivision, or the qui tam plaintiff shall be required to prove all essential elements of the cause of action, including damages, by a preponderance of the evidence.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a guilty verdict rendered in a criminal proceeding charging false statements or fraud, whether upon a verdict after trial or upon a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, except for a plea of nolo contendere made prior to July 1, 2001, shall stop the defendant from denying the essential elements of the offense in any action which involves the same transaction as in the criminal proceeding and which is brought under subsection (a), (b), or (c) of Section 4 of this Act.
§ 4-18-107. Provisions are not exclusive – Liberal construction.
(a) The provisions of this Act are not exclusive, and the remedies provided for in this Act shall be in addition to any other remedies provided for by law or available under common law.
(b) If any provision of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end the provisions of this act are declared to be severable.
(c) The provisions of this act are declared to be remedial in nature and the provisions of this act shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes.
§ 4-18-108. Inapplicable to medical claims.
This act shall not apply to any conduct, activity or claims covered by the Medicaid False Claims Act, Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 71-5-181 through Section 71-5-185, including without limitation, claims arising out of funds paid to or by TennCare managed care organizations.
§ 71-5-181 Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act — Short title.
(b) “Medicaid program” as used in §§ 71-5-182 — 71-5-186 includes the TennCare program and any successor program to the medicaid program.
§ 71-5-182. Violations — Damages — Definitions.
(D) Knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement material to an obligation to pay or transmit money, or property to the state, or knowingly conceals, or knowingly and improperly, avoids, or decreases an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the state, relative to the medicaid program; is liable to the state for a civil penalty of not less than five thousand dollars ($ 5,000) and not more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($ 25,000), adjusted by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (28 U.S.C. 2461 note; Public Law 101-410), plus three (3) times the amount of damages which the state sustains because of the act of that person.
§ 71-5-183. Civil actions — Employee remedies.
(b) (1) A person may bring a civil action for a violation of § 71-5-182 for the person and for the state. The action shall be brought in the name of the state of Tennessee. The action may be dismissed only if the court and the attorney general and reporter or district attorney general give written consent to the dismissal and their reasons for consenting.
(c) (1) If the state proceeds with the action, it shall have the primary responsibility for prosecuting the action, and shall not be bound by an act of the person bringing the action. Such person shall have the right to continue as a party to the action, subject to the limitations set forth in subdivision (c)(2).
(2) (A) The state may dismiss the action notwithstanding the objections of the person initiating the action, if the person has been notified by the state of the filing of the motion and the court has provided the person with an opportunity for a hearing on the motion.
(d) (1) (A) If the state proceeds with an action brought by a person under subsection (a), a person shall, subject to subdivision (d)(1)(B), receive at least fifteen percent (15%) but not more than twenty-five percent (25%) of the proceeds of the action or settlement of the claim, depending upon the extent to which the person substantially contributed to the prosecution of the action.

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