Bruce L. Erickson, M.D., and Great Falls Eye Surgery Center v. United States of America, Ex Rel., Department of Health and Human Services

We consider here the statutory duty of an officer of the United States to enforce the will of Congress when a Medicare provider is convicted of program fraud. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (the “Secretary”) appeals the district court’s grant of a permanent injunction to Dr. Bruce Erickson and his ophthalmological clinic, the Great Falls Eye Surgery Center (collectively, “plaintiffs”). The injunction prohibits the Secretary from excluding plaintiffs from federally-funded health care programs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(a)(l) until this court rules on plaintiffs’ appeal of their criminal convictions for submitting false claims to Medicare in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 287 . The district court concluded that allowing the Secretary to exclude plaintiffs before their criminal appeal was resolved would violate their due process rights.

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . Following oral argument, we issued an Order of Partial Remand instructing that the permanent injunction be immediately dissolved. We indicated at that time that our disposition of the appeal would follow. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the district court’s grant of a…