United States Of America Ex Rel. Guardiola v. Renown Health

2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112511 (August 25, 2015)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

This is a qui tam action under the False Claims Act. P claims that while working at Renown (D) from June 2006 through June 2014, she discovered the existence of a scheme whereby D knowingly submitted false inpatient reimbursement claims to Medicare that should have been billed on a less expensive, outpatient basis. P sent two document production requests to D. D has not produced emails for a so-called 'gap period' between April 2011 and February 2013. P filed a motion to compel. Between April 2011 and February 2013, D used Arcserve, a then-leading backup solution system, to back up email and other data. As of March 2011, D possessed email for every employee from the beginning of their employment until that date, and all of these emails were backed up and are now located on the March 2011 backup tapes. In April 2011, D adopted an email retention period of six months: as emails became six-months-old, they became inactive data and were then stored on a backup tape. On the belief that the March 2011 tapes held the greatest number and scope of historical emails relevant to this litigation, D restored the March 2011 backup tapes, via a third-party vendor, and produced emails contained therein. (#133 at 6-7.) The restoration cost alone, i.e., excluding attorney review and production, exceeded $35,000. Including review and production, the cost surpassed $100,000. D claims a cost of $248K to produce the gap period.