COURT CHILLS RELIANCE POD ALERT CHALLENGE (Orthopedics This Week)
Chill out, dude, and don’t bleed until you’re shot!
That’s in essence what a federal court in California told Reliance Medical Systems, LLC, on February 5, 2014, as it dismissed the company’s constitutional challenge to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) March 26, 2013 Special Fraud Alert (Alert) on physician-owned distributors (PODs).
Reliance, which used to be involved in PODs, argued that the Alert “chilled” their right to speak to physicians about ownership in PODs. Reliance filed suit against the OIG on October 8, 2013, alleging that the Alert violated the First Amendment right of speech, due process rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Administrative Procedures Act.
But the Court didn’t address those issues, simply saying that Reliance didn’t have standing to challenge the Alert because they had not been harmed.
Specifically, the Court said the Alert had not been enforced in any way against Reliance. Thomas Bulleit and Peter Holman, of the law firm of Ropes and Gray LLP, said the Court made much of the fact that Reliance was not, at the tim...
