Supreme Court strengthens anti-fraud laws for government contractors and Medicare/Medicaid fraud.

The US Supreme Court has revived two whistleblower lawsuits alleging that Safeway and SuperValu overcharged the government for prescription drugs to the tune of $200m. The cases involved allegations that major retail pharmacies across the country knowingly overcharged Medicaid and Medicare by overstating what their "usual and customary prices" are. The issue before the court was what the standard of proof is for determining whether the pharmacies acted "knowingly" under the False Claims Act, a federal law that dates back to the Civil War when it was enacted to combat fraud by private contractors who were overbilling or simply not delivering promised goods for the war effort.