Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys Brian Roark, Taylor Chenery and Angie Bergman represented Brookdale Senior Living, the nation’s largest owner and operator of senior living communities, in a False Claims Act (FCA) suit brought by a whistleblower accusing Brookdale of Medicare fraud. In November 2015, Judge Trauger of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee dismissed the second amended complaint with prejudice, finding that the whistleblower did not adequately allege the submission of false claims to a federal healthcare program. This case was outlined in the article, “Brookdale Again Defeats Whistleblower’s FCA Claims,” published by Law360 on November 6, 2015.
The court had previously dismissed the whistleblowers first amended complaint in a March 31 ruling. There, the court similarly held that the complaint must be dismissed where it failed to allege that a specific false claim was actually submitted to the government.
The case was summarized in the following articles:
- “Brookdale Senior Living Escapes Whistleblower’s FCA Claims,” Law360 (April 2, 2015)
- “Lack of Specific False Medicare Claim Example Sinks FCA Suit,” Bloomberg BNA (April 2, 2015)
- “Court Dismisses Civil Fraud Case Against Brookdale,” The Tennessean (April 3, 2015)
- “Whistle-Blower Claims Against Brookdale Senior Living Dismissed,” Bloomberg BNA (November 12, 2015)
- “U.S Court in Tennessee Tosses FCA Claims,” AHLA (November 13, 2015)