§438.3.  False or fraudulent claim; misrepresentation

A.  No person shall knowingly present or cause to be presented a false or fraudulent claim.

B.  No person shall knowingly engage in misrepresentation or make, use, or cause to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim.

C.  No person shall knowingly make, use, or cause to be made or used, a false record or statement material to an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the medical assistance programs, or to knowingly conceal, avoid, or decrease an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the medical assistance programs.

D.  No person shall conspire to defraud, or attempt to defraud, the medical assistance programs through misrepresentation or by obtaining, or attempting to obtain, payment for a false or fraudulent claim.

E.(1)  No person shall knowingly submit a claim for goods, services, or supplies which were medically unnecessary or which were of substandard quality or quantity.

(2)  If a managed care health care provider or a health care provider operating under a voucher system under the medical assistance programs fails to provide medically necessary goods, services, or supplies or goods, services, or supplies which are of substandard quality or quantity to a recipient, and those goods, services, or supplies are covered under the managed care contract or voucher contract with the medical assistance programs, such failure shall constitute a violation of Paragraph (1) of this Subsection.

(3)  "Substandard quality" in reference to services applicable to medical care as used in this Subsection shall mean substandard as to the appropriate standard of care as used to determine medical malpractice, including but not limited to the standard of care provided in R.S. 9:2794.

F.  Each violation of this Section may be treated as a separate violation or may be combined into one violation at the option of the secretary or the attorney general.

G.  No action shall be brought under this Section unless the amount of alleged actual damages is one thousand dollars or more.

H.  No action brought pursuant to this Section shall be instituted later than ten years after the date upon which the alleged violation occurred.

Acts 1997, No. 1373, §1; Acts 2007, No. 14, §1, eff. June 18, 2007; Acts 2009, No. 426, §1; Acts 2011, No. 185, §1.