United States v. Greber
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
760 F.2d 68, cert denied, 474 U.S. 988 (1985)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
Greber (defendant), a physician, founded Cardio-Med, Inc., a company that provided physicians with medical devices which recorded a patient’s cardiac activity on a tape. Greber then sought financial reimbursement for the services from Medicare for all eligible patients and gave a portion to any physician referring a patient to use the device. Greber claimed that the referring physicians had provided “interpretation fees” even though Cardio-Med had evaluated the device data. The fee paid to the physicians, 40 percent per patient, was more than Medicare allowed. In a prior civil proceeding, Greber had testified that “if a doctor didn’t get his consulting fee, he wouldn’t be using our service.” Based on Cardio-Med’s billing records, the federal government charged Greber with providing financial kickbacks to referring physicians in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1395nn(b)(2)(B), the “Anti-Kickback” statute. At trial, the district court judge instructed the jury that the government was required to prove that Cardio-Med paid the physicians some part of the amount received from Medicare; that defendant knowingly and willfully caused Cardio-Med to make the payment; and that it did so with the intent to induce the physicians to use Cardio-Med’s services. The judge also charged that even if a physician actually interpreted a patient’s test as a Cardio-Med consultant, it did not matter if one purpose of the referral fee was to induce the ordering of services from Cardio-Med. The jury found Greber guilty. Post-trial motions were denied and defendant appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Weis, Circuit J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 816,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.