Opinion ID: 522863
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: payments from medicare funds as jurisdictional requirement

Text: 68 Next the defendants argue that the two substantive counts involving the automobiles should be dismissed since the government failed to prove that they were purchased with Medicare funds and thus there is no federal jurisdiction. Defendants misread the statute. The statute requires only that the payment be made directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1395nn(b). The Medicare federal jurisdictional nexus is found elsewhere in the statute--in the purchasing or recommending the purchasing of services which are paid for by Medicare funds. See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1395nn(b)(1)(B) (remuneration is illegal when it is given in exchange for recommending the purchase of a service for which the payment may be made in whole or in part under this subchapter); cf. United States v. Ruttenberg, 625 F.2d 173, 177 (7th Cir.1980) (discussing similar issue with respect to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1396). Under defendants' theory, the government would have to trace commingled funds to their source. A small example of this is present in this case: the automobiles were purchased not by Bay State but by other corporations, a realty corporation and an ambulance dealership, that were not direct recipients of Medicare funds. The plain language of the statute does not require the government to show that Medicare funds were in fact used to make the illegal payment. 69