United States ex rel. Sharp v. Consolidated Med. Transport, Inc.,
No. 96 C 6502 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 4, 2001)

An ambulance company, two hospitals, and individual medical providers moved to dismiss a qui tam action. Two of the ambulance company's former employees alleged that the company deliberately billed Medicare for the cost of ambulance services that were not medically necessary. They further alleged that the ambulance company provided kickbacks to the medical providers in exchange for referrals.

The United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois dismissed two of the counts, and allowed the rest of the claims to go forward. The court dismissed the counts which were based on a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute because it was not alleged that the government would not have paid for the services in question. According to the court: "if the relators can show that the alleged scheme is in fact an illegal kickback scheme, and that the government would have barred claims had it known of the existence of the underlying scheme, a violation of the False Claims Act would be proven." The court found that the relators had not pled the necessary elements and dismissed this part of the complaint but allowed the relators an opportunity to amend the complaint.