Eye Care Provider Barred From Fraud Suit Against Whistleblower

A distributor of eye surgery products is barred from pursuing a False Claims Act suit against a whistleblower—who is accusing the company of fraud in a separate FCA suit—because the company’s claims are based on publicly disclosed information, a federal court in Minnesota ruled.

Whistleblower Kipp Fesenmaier sued Cameron-Ehlen Group, which does business as Precision Lens, and others in 2013 alleging unlawful kickbacks to induce Medicare beneficiaries to use their products. The government settled with defendant Sightpath Medical Inc. in 2017.

Cameron-Ehlen Group sued Fesenmaier in 2020 alleging that he didn’t list his FCA claims as assets in a 2012 ...