Nat'l Comm. to Preserve Social Security and Medicare v. Philip Morris USA, Inc.
Plaintiffs brought action to recover costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses of Medicare beneficiaries under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSP), claiming that defendants bore primary responsibility under MSP for costs advanced by Medicare. The Court held that plaintiffs lacked standing because "MSP does not create a qui tam action" that would allow plaintiffs to recover. The Court remanded with instructions to dismiss the case.
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, et al. v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al., 395 Fed.Appx. 772 (2d Cir. 2010).
Governments or insurance agencies may seek reimbursement from the tobacco companies for health care costs related to tobacco. The most famous example is the case brought by individual states in the U.S.A. that resulted in the Master Settlement Agreement.
The court might consider procedural matters without touching the merits of the case. These might include: improper joinder, when third parties, such as Health NGOs or government officials, seek to become parties to the suit; lack of standing, where a plaintiff fails to meet the minimum requirements to bring suit; lack of personal jurisdiction, where the court does not have jurisdiction to rule over the defendant; or lack of subject matter jurisdiction, where the court does not have jurisdiction over the issue at suit.
Type of Tobacco Product
None
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"Plaintiffs argue that the MSP private action is a valid partial assignment of Medicare's right to be reimbursed by responsible primary payers, that the MSP is thus a qui tam statute within the historical mainstream of qui tam statutes, and consequently
they have standing to assert Medicare's claim. Although their complaint alleged alternative grounds for standing based on an individualized injury suffered by a single Medicare beneficiary as well as by members of an association who are also Medicare beneficiaries, plaintiffs categorically disclaimed these grounds at a hearing before the district court on November 20, 2008..."The distinct language of the MSP strongly indicates that the MSP allows a private party not to bring suit on behalf of the Government to remedy any wrongs done thereto, but rather to bring suit in the party's own name to remedy the wrong done to it—namely the failure of a primary plan to make the payments required of it on behalf of the private party bringing the suit." Woods v. Empire Health Choice, Inc., 574 F.3d 92, 98 (2d Cir. 2009). Accordingly, the MSP "does not create a qui tam action, but rather merely enables a private party to bring an action to recover from a private insurer only where the private party has itself suffered an injury because a primary plan has failed to make a required payment to or on behalf of it." Id. at 101."
Limitations regarding the use of quotes The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
Plaintiffs brought action to recover costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses of Medicare beneficiaries under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSP), claiming that defendants bore primary responsibility under MSP for costs advanced by Medicare. The Court held that plaintiffs lacked standing because "MSP does not create a qui tam action" that would allow plaintiffs to recover. The Court remanded with instructions to dismiss the case.