In re Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. Billing Practices Litigation
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
293 F.3d 289 (2002)
During a DOJ investigation into alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud, Columbia/HCA (defendant) initially withheld internal Coding Audits as privileged, but later voluntarily produced some of them to the DOJ in exchange for a more favorable settlement; once private litigants in a consolidated fraud suit demanded the same Coding Audits, Columbia/HCA again asserted privilege, and the district court held that producing the documents to the DOJ had already waived any privilege, compelling disclosure to the private litigants as well. Columbia/HCA took an interlocutory appeal.
Whether a selective waiver of the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine, resulting from disclosure during a governmental investigation, is recognized so as to permit withholding the same documents from subsequent private litigants.