- Posts by Raja Sékaran
Member of the FirmWith more than 30 years of experience at the intersection of business law, health care regulation, and government enforcement, attorney Raja Sékaran provides practical, business-minded solutions that help health care ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that a laboratory owner’s payments to marketing intermediaries violated the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA)—in its first interpretation of the statute since it was enacted in 2018.
In United States v. Schena, No. 23-2989, F.4th (9th Cir. July 11, 2025), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions of Mark Schena—who in 2022 was found guilty by a federal district court jury of nine counts of health care and securities fraud. These included two counts of EKRA violations, based on illegal kickbacks to an intermediary who misrepresented the lab’s services. Schena was sentenced to 96 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $24 million in restitution. (The intermediary plead guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced to a shorter term, as was another co-defendant represented by Epstein Becker & Green attorneys.)
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Recent Updates
- First Circuit Clarifies When Clinical Labs Can Rely on Physician Orders
- Understanding the False Claims Act Statute of Limitations—and the Debate Over the “Last Overt Act” Rule
- Podcast: The Down-Low on Data for Value-Based Enterprises and Their Participating Providers – Diagnosing Health Care
- Second Circuit Affirms Denial of Preliminary Injunction in Challenge To N.Y. Law Restricting Weight Loss and Muscle Building Supplement Sales to Minors
- The DOJ’s Bulk Sensitive Data Rule and Your Obligation to “Know Your Data”