Opinion ID: 2722147
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Causing Other Hospitals to Submit False Claims

Text: As set forth above, Thayer contends that Planned Parenthood violated the FCA by instructing patients who experienced abortion-related complications to give false information to medical professionals at other hospitals, causing those medical professionals to unknowingly file claims for services performed in connection with abortions. Specifically, Thayer alleges that Planned Parenthood’s clinic personnel were instructed to tell patients who received abortions “to report to the local hospital emergency room in case of hemorrhage or other serious side effect and to advise local hospital emergency room personnel that [they] had suffered a ‘miscarriage’ and to seek Title XIX-Medicaid coverage for such ‘miscarriage.’” Thayer further alleges that she learned that false claims were subsequently filed by local hospitals “as a direct result of Planned Parenthood[’s] . . . instructions to clients to falsely tell the hospitals that they were merely suffering a miscarriage.” These allegations fail to satisfy Rule 9(b) because they lack sufficient indicia of reliability. Thayer does not allege that she had access to the billing systems of the unidentified local hospitals, nor does she contend that she had knowledge of their billing practices. As a result, Thayer is only able to speculate that false claims were submitted by these hospitals. Because Thayer failed to provide a factual basis for her knowledge of these alleged false claims, we are unable to infer that false claims were submitted. Accordingly, we affirm the dismissal of these allegations.