Sanderson v. Hca-The Healthcare Co‪.‬

In this False Claims Act suit, Philip Sanderson charged that the defendants, HCA -- The Healthcare Company (now HCA, Inc.) and its corporate predecessors, Columbia Health Care Corporation, Hospital Corporation of America, and HealthTrust, Inc. (collectively "HCA"), had violated the Act by filing "hospital cost reports" based on the allocation of corporate debt expense to its individual facilities rather than to the "home office," a practice that Sanderson contends was in violation of Medicare and similar federal programs from which HCA was claiming reimbursement. The district court dismissed the complaint, holding that, as amended, it failed to meet the pleading standards for allegations of fraud under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), that it failed to state a cause of action under Rule 12(b)(6), and that it was filed outside the applicable six-year statute of limitations. Because we conclude that the complaint was subject to dismissal for failure to conform to the requirements of Rule 9(b), we affirm the judgment of the district court. Having made that determination, we decline to address the remaining questions raised on appeal.