Philadelphia Whistleblower Lawyers: Reporting Fraud in the Region

The Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Qui tam cases in the Philadelphia region are filed under seal in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at 601 Market Street, and served on the United States Attorney for the district and on the Attorney General.

The district covers Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton counties. Its United States Attorney office has an active civil fraud practice, which affects how quickly matters move.

What the regional economy produces

Fraud follows federal money, and Greater Philadelphia concentrates several categories of it.

• Academic medical centers and health systems billing Medicare and Medicaid
• Universities administering substantial federal research grants
• Pharmaceutical and medical device companies across the region and southern New Jersey
• Addiction treatment providers, a dense and heavily federally funded sector
• Defense contractors and subcontractors subject to DFARS and CMMC obligations
• Home health and skilled nursing operators

A case resolved in this district

Our attorneys represented the whistleblower in a False Claims Act case against Recovery Centers of America that settled for 2 million dollars, announced by United States Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The government alleged that DEA audits revealed unlawful dispensing practices, missing controlled substances, and recordkeeping failures at facilities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and that the company billed the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and Medicaid for treatment services not properly provided or documented.

The relator, a former Outcomes Supervisor at the company King of Prussia headquarters, received 230,000 dollars as her share and separately settled a retaliation claim for 450,000 dollars plus costs and fees.

Pennsylvania has no state false claims act

Pennsylvania is among the states without a general state false claims act, so Pennsylvania cases proceed under the federal statute for the federal share of the loss. New Jersey does have one, which matters for matters spanning both states.

Our attorney Ross Wolfe has publicly advocated for Pennsylvania to adopt a state false claims act.

What the Eastern District of Pennsylvania actually does with these cases

A qui tam complaint filed in Philadelphia goes under seal to the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse at 601 Market Street, and to the civil division of the United States Attorney office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The district covers Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton counties. Its civil division handles healthcare fraud, government contracting, and grant matters, and works with the inspectors general of the affected agencies. Appeals go to the Third Circuit, also seated in Philadelphia, whose decisions on Rule 9(b) particularity and post-Escobar materiality shape how a complaint here must be pleaded.

In the Recovery Centers of America matter our attorneys handled, the settlement was announced by United States Attorney David Metcalf and followed a coordinated investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Office of Personnel Management Office of Inspector General. That is a realistic picture of who ends up involved.

Pennsylvania law leaves a gap that federal law fills

Two features of Pennsylvania law matter to anyone considering this here.

First, Pennsylvania has no general state false claims act. Around thirty states have one, allowing recovery of the state share of Medicaid alongside the federal share. Pennsylvania does not, so a Pennsylvania Medicaid case recovers the federal portion only. New Jersey does have one, which is why cases involving providers operating across the Delaware Valley are frequently filed under both statutes.

Second, Pennsylvania is an at-will employment state, and the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law at 43 P.S. 1421 is narrower than people expect, reaching public bodies and employers receiving public funds rather than private employment generally.

The practical consequence is that federal protection carries more weight here than in a state with broad protections of its own. Section 3730(h) of the False Claims Act provides reinstatement with seniority, two times back pay with interest, and attorney fees, and it does not depend on Pennsylvania law at all.

The industries that generate Philadelphia cases

Fraud follows federal money, and the money in this region concentrates in identifiable places.

• Academic medical centers and health systems: Penn Medicine, Jefferson, Temple, Main Line Health, Trinity Health, and Children Hospital of Philadelphia bill Medicare and Medicaid at scale
• Universities administering federal research grants, including Penn, Drexel, Temple, and the Wistar Institute
• The pharmaceutical corridor from Philadelphia through Montgomery and Chester counties into central New Jersey
• Addiction treatment providers across Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Camden, and Burlington counties
• Defense contractors and suppliers around the Philadelphia Navy Yard and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst
• Skilled nursing, hospice, and home health operators throughout the Delaware and Schuylkill valleys
• Port and logistics operations at PhilaPort generating customs and tariff matters

You do not have to be in Philadelphia, and being here does not tie you here

False Claims Act cases are federal. Venue follows the defendant and the conduct, not the relator, so a case can properly be brought where the defendant resides or transacts business or where the fraud occurred.

In practice that cuts both ways. A relator living in Philadelphia may have a case that belongs in another district, and a relator anywhere in the country may have a case properly filed here because the defendant operates here. Our attorneys are admitted in the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Pennsylvania, the District of New Jersey, the Third and Ninth Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court, and we represent relators nationwide.

Our pending case against Harvard University is in the District of Massachusetts, litigated from Philadelphia with local co-counsel.