Law360: Justices Search For Line In Health Care Identity Theft Law

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in Dubin v. US, a case where psychologist David Dubin is appealing a health care fraud conviction after being found guilty of incorrectly charging a patient for services. The nation’s high court will determine whether to uphold a Fifth Circuit ruling that deemed Dubin’s offense to be “aggravated identity theft,” which added a two-year sentence to his conviction. “The Fifth Circuit’s decision here stretches the aggravated identity theft statute beyond its breaking point,” Dubin’s lawyer Jeff Fisher argued. “Overbilling Medicaid by US$101 may provide fodder for a simple healthcare fraud prosecution, but, as even the concurring judges below recognized, it does not meet any ordinary understanding of the term ‘identity theft.’” Dubin is represented by Jeffrey Fisher, Anton Metlitsky, Bruce Pettig, and Jason Zarrow of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

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