Where the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services makes payments pursuant to a 'pay and chase' policy, are the certifications of Stone County Hospital, Inc. 'material' to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service's payment decisions as required by the False Claims Act?

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Where the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) makes payments pursuant to a “pay and chase” policy, are the certifications of Stone County Hospital, Inc. (SCH) “material” to CMS’s payment decisions as required by the False Claims Act (FCA)? 2. Where the Government alleges that Ted and Julie Cain’s salaries are excessive and where those salaries were disclosed annually in cost reports submitted to the Government without objection by the Government, did Defendants knowingly make objectively false claims in seeking reimbursement for those disclosed and accepted salaries? 3. When the Government pursues recovery for allegedly “unreasonable” salary claims by bypassing Medicare’s administrative process and brings a FCA action in lieu of the statutory administrative remedy, is the Congressionally established administrative remedy the exclusive remedy for recovery of CMS overpayments? 4. Does the FCA’s “good cause” requirement for extensions of the election period allow the Government to obtain 18 sealed extensions and conduct a secret investigation for 8 years before intervening, where the reasons for the extensions have never been disclosed, constitute overreaching action by the Government in violation of due process, and permit dismissal of the complaint as a sanction?