Supreme Court of Florida

The "antikickback" provision of the Florida Medicaid fraud statute, Florida Statutes section 409.920(2)(e), is preempted by federal law since it criminalizes conduct that federal law specifically intended to be lawful and shielded from prosecution, and thus, it is unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/18/2006
• Published 05/18/2006

Judges

• QUINCE, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Christopher M. Kise, Solicitor General, Louis F. Hubener, Chief Deputy Solicitor General, Lynn C. Hearn, Deputy Solicitor General, and Jason Vail, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant., M. Stephen Turner, P.A., Kelly A. O'Keefe and Brooke E. Lewis of Broad and Cassel, Tallahassee, FL, and Gabriel L. Imperato, P.A., of Broad and Cassel, Fort Lauderdale, FL, on behalf of DaVita, Inc., Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc., and Gambro Healthcare, Inc.;  Brit L. Geiger, New York, NY, Gadi Weinreich, and Howard J. Young, Washington, D.C., on behalf of Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal, LLP;  and Max R. Price and Colleen M. Greene, Miami, FL, on behalf of Joel M. Berger, D.D.S., As Amici Curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• G. Richard Strafer, P.A., Anthony C. Vitale, P.A., Miami, FL, Ronald J. Manto of Manto and Kassebaum, LLP, Coconut Grove, FL, and Charles Wender, Boca Raton, FL, for Appellees.