Eye for an Eye? The Sixth Circuit Loses Sight of Anti-Kickback Causation in Hathaway

In March 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held in United States ex rel. Martin v. Hathaway that the Anti-Kickback Statute’s (AKS) language of “resulting from” requires a but-for causal standard for prosecution through the False Claims Act (FCA). Although courts agree that some causal link is necessary, they disagree on how direct that link must be. The Sixth Circuit, like the Eighth Circuit before it, based its holding on the Supreme Court’s prior analysis of “results from” in Burrage v. United States, which provided the basis for but-for causation. The Third Circuit’s interpretation, however, resulted in a broader reading of the ordinary language of the statute. This Comment argues that the Third Circuit’s approach of requiring “some connection” between the AKS violation and FCA prosecution is correct because a broader reading is more consistent with the AKS’s purpose and benefits both the government and individual healthcare consumers alike.