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Government Contracts
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May 20, 2013
Va. Decision Casts Doubt On Contractor Teaming Plans
A recent decision in Virginia's federal court could alter the way companies team up to win federal contracts, by invalidating preaward subcontracting agreements as unenforceable "agreements to agree" in the future.
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May 20, 2013
Fighting Agencies May Be Tougher After High Court Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's Monday ruling in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which held that courts should apply a deferential standard of review when federal agencies interpret the limits of their own authority, may make it tougher for regulated businesses to fight agency actions, attorneys say.
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May 20, 2013
NJ Assembly Passes Privatization Standards Bill
The New Jersey General Assembly on Monday passed legislation to establish specific standards and procedures for the privatization of the state’s public services, a rebuke to a recent trend toward privatization despite complaints from some lawmakers who said it doesn’t always save money or provide better service.
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May 20, 2013
7 Birdsall Execs Plead Not Guilty In Pay-To-Play Scheme
Seven executives from engineering firm Birdsall Services Group on Monday pled not guilty in a New Jersey state court after being indicted in a pay-to-play scheme in which they are accused of concealing illegal corporate campaign contributions by masking them as personal employee donations.
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May 20, 2013
Homeland Security Aims To Debar Body Scanner Maker
OSI Systems Inc., which manufactured body scanners for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Monday that the government is seeking to debar it from getting new contracts as a result of privacy concerns raised by its equipment.
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May 20, 2013
Cybersecurity Standards Need Flexibility, NIST Told
The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Thursday released an analysis of hundreds of initial comments on proposed cybersecurity measures to protect critical infrastructure, with respondents stressing that the framework should allow for flexibility and emphasize risk management over compliance standards.
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May 20, 2013
NYU Researchers Charged In Chinese Bribes-For-Secrets Plot
Three New York University researchers have been charged with accepting bribes in exchange for secretly providing medical research to Chinese companies, sharing work that was funded by the National Institutes of Health with the university's competitors, authorities said Monday.
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May 20, 2013
Agencies Deserve Deference On Jurisdiction, Justices Say
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts should apply a deferential standard of review toward a federal agency's definition of its own jurisdiction, siding with the Federal Communications Commission in a fight with local government agencies over zoning rules for wireless facilities.
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May 20, 2013
NYC Sued Over Seniority Changes In School Bus Contracts
Two New York City school bus companies on Thursday hit the city with a lawsuit alleging its Department of Education illegally changed contract bid requirements, allowing newer companies to avoid a mandate that certain senior drivers be hired.
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May 20, 2013
Omnicare Gets FCA Off-Label Prescription Action Trimmed
A Georgia federal judge on Friday trimmed several claims from a False Claims Act suit accusing Omnicare Inc. of charging Medicare for thousands of anti-psychotic drug prescriptions for off-label uses, ruling they weren't backed by evidence or were improperly added to an amended complaint.
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May 17, 2013
Criminal Probes Await Top Health Cos.: Ex-DOJ Fraud Chief
The U.S. Department of Justice’s heavy focus on health care fraud in recent years is set to move into a new phase that will increasingly target major corporations and their executives with criminal investigations, said Sam S. Sheldon, a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP partner who until recently headed up the DOJ's health care fraud unit.
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May 17, 2013
Hospitals' Medicaid Rate Suit Nixed By Texas High Court
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected an argument by 14 hospitals that the state is required to recalculate Medicaid reimbursement rates for the 2002 through 2009 fiscal years, ruling that a 2008 decision the high court issued in the dispute afforded no such relief.
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May 17, 2013
GSA, DOD Solicit Advice On Revamping Cybersecurity
The U.S. General Services Administration and Department of Defense are seeking advice regarding cybersecurity standards involved in government contracts, requesting that vendors weigh in on current measures and the potential pitfalls of implementing new ones as part of a national push to revamp cybersecurity.
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May 17, 2013
CH2M Can't Get Additional Fees For $2.7B Cleanup, DOE Says
A review conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy over a $2.7 billion contract awarded to a CH2M Hill company for environmental cleanup of the Idaho National Laboratory nuclear research facility site has found that the contractor isn't entitled to additional fees based on the contract's nontarget work.
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May 17, 2013
Medicaid Fraud Units To Get Federal Funds For Data Mining
The Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general on Friday released a final rule that will allow Medicaid fraud control units to get federal funding to conduct data-mining activities, such as analyzing claims data to look for patterns of abuse, reversing a long-standing prohibition on such funds.
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May 17, 2013
Contractors Ask 11th Circ. To Affirm Overturned Suspensions
Two U.S.-based contractors with ties to an indicted Kuwaiti food contractor on Thursday asked the Eleventh Circuit to uphold a lower court’s decision to lift a contracting suspension imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense, arguing they had never been accused of wrongdoing.
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May 17, 2013
KBR Says $500M Iraq Closeout Deal Is Separate Contract
KBR Inc. shot back Thursday at the federal government's attempt to dismiss its protest over a $500 million fixed-price plan to close out a massive Iraq War contract, saying the government had wrongly asserted that the plan was an extension of a contract that expired in 2011.
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May 17, 2013
Apparel Co. Loses $325M Military Uniform Bid Protest
Alabama-based American Apparel Inc. lost a bid protest over a $325 million military uniform contract Thursday, failing to convince the U.S. Government Accountability Office that the government should have considered the winner’s poor performance on a contract that ended after the bidding period had closed.
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May 17, 2013
Whistleblower Wants Jackson Lewis DQ'd In Sun FCA Suit
A whistleblower asked a Florida federal judge Thursday to disqualify Jackson Lewis LLP from representing Sun Healthcare Group Inc. in a suit accusing it of falsely billing Medicare, saying the firm has misused sealed records in another case.
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May 16, 2013
DOD Anti-Counterfeit Rule Raises Safe Harbor Concerns
A long-awaited U.S. Department of Defense regulation lays out additional steps contractors must take to prevent counterfeit electronics from making their way into defense technology, but questions remain about the implementation of the new rules, especially concerning the scope of a safe harbor provision for DOD-approved anti-counterfeiting practices.
Expert Analysis
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6 Ways The ACA May Increase Federal Contractors’ Costs
Federal contractors face significant cost increases and compliance requirements as a result of the health insurance reforms in the Affordable Care Act. To minimize costs and compliance risks in the future, companies should take a number of steps in the coming months, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.
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DOD's Proposal Checklist: A Useful Tool With Some Risks
While the U.S. Department of Defense's new “proposal adequacy checklist" very well may prove to aid defense contractors in preparing more thorough, accurate and complete proposals, the checklist also provides another opportunity for mistakes in a proposal, says Ryan Bradel of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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US V. MedQuest Is Important For Health Care FCA Cases
The Sixth Circuit recently reversed an $11.1 million False Claims Act judgment in U.S. v. MedQuest Associates. The court's refusal to impose the FCA’s “extraordinary penalties” on violations of technical and local Medicare program requirements represents significant precedent for health care providers facing an FCA suit, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.
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A New Procedural Trend In Qui Tam FCA Cases
As the federal government faces increased pressure from courts and Congress to speed up intervention decisions in qui tam False Claims Act cases, it is starting to respond by postponing those decisions until after the cases have been unsealed, which could drastically impact how these cases are litigated while the government is waiting in the wings, say attorneys with Nixon Peabody LLP.
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What Cyberlock Teaches Us About Teaming Agreements
Following the recent ruling in Cyberlock Consulting Inc. v. Info. Experts Inc. that nonspecific teaming agreements are unenforceable, government contractors that work together to secure a contract award should make the terms of their agreements as definitive as possible, say attorneys with Venable LLP.
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Yet Another Cliff-Hanging OIG Report
In its ongoing series of studies and audits, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General recently released its report on Medicare hospice and general inpatient care. While the report clearly shows the OIG's concern for the substantial percentage of hospices not providing GIP, it also leaves several questions unanswered, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
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5 Lessons From Recent Small-Business Issues At The GAO
Although the procurement environment is difficult for all government contractors, the effects of the sequester and budget austerity may be felt most by small business concerns. Recent cases provide some tips for small businesses to put themselves in the best competitive position that they can, say Daniel Chudd and Damien Specht of Jenner & Block LLP.
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Proposed CAGE Code Rule Raises Policy Concerns
A recently proposed rule requiring certain offerors to provide the government pre-award a Commercial and Government Entity code contains a significant new disclosure requirement regarding corporate structure, and the logical connection between the required corporate information and the rule’s stated goals is not readily apparent, says Seamus Curley of DLA Piper.
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Lessons From Philips FCPA Settlement Over Polish Bribes
While Poland has not received particular Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement focus over the years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent order against Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV over Polish bribes underscores the fact that, in given circumstances, any country can present high corruption risk, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.