{"id":94810,"date":"2025-10-13T13:54:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/?post_type=news&p=94810"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:56:21","slug":"mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/","title":{"rendered":"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first appellate decision interpreting the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) clarified how the law applies to marketing arrangements within the healthcare industry, McGuireWoods partners Timothy Fry<\/a> and Justin Givens<\/a> wrote in a Sept. 15, 2025, article<\/a> in Westlaw Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fry and Givens examined a recent opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that upheld a conviction for an EKRA violation. The Ninth Circuit clarified \u201cinconsistent district court opinions in the circuit, finding that EKRA does<\/em> cover payments to marketers designed to induce referrals, and is not<\/em> limited to payments made to medical professionals who are actually referring the patients,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision, they added, \u201cshould remind recovery homes, clinical treatment facilities and laboratories that compensation structures and promotional strategies should be carefully designed to avoid even the appearance of undue influence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article first appeared on McGuireWoods\u2019 FCA Insider<\/a> blog. McGuireWoods summer associate Nylah D. Custalow contributed to the article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first appellate decision interpreting the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) clarified how the law applies to marketing arrangements within the healthcare industry, McGuireWoods partners Timothy Fry and Justin Givens wrote…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[],"industry_tax":[44],"international_tax":[],"location_tax":[83],"media_role":[],"news_type":[2416],"people_tax":[1284,1619],"practice_tax":[148,157],"site_tax":[2],"class_list":["post-94810","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_type-in-the-news","practice_tax-healthcare-compliance","practice_tax-false-claims-act-investigations"],"acf":[],"links_out":[{"id":966,"title":"Justin P. Givens","url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/people\/g\/justin-p-givens\/","published":"2023-04-05 15:39:34","blog_id":2},{"id":749,"title":"Timothy J. Fry","url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/people\/f\/timothy-j-fry\/","published":"2018-07-22 06:42:48","blog_id":2}],"links_in":[],"yoast_head":"\nMcGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today - McGuireWoods<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today - McGuireWoods\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first appellate decision interpreting the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) clarified how the law applies to marketing arrangements within the healthcare industry, McGuireWoods partners Timothy Fry and Justin Givens wrote...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"McGuireWoods\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mcguirewoods\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-28T20:56:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/06\/MW-social-media-icon.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@McGuireWoodsLLP\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nicole Wolter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bc0551453c096673c4f702dc0057e61\"},\"headline\":\"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-13T18:54:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-28T20:56:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\"},\"wordCount\":173,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\",\"name\":\"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today - McGuireWoods\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-13T18:54:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-28T20:56:21+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/\",\"name\":\"McGuireWoods\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"McGuireWoods\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/mcguirewoods-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/mcguirewoods-logo.svg\",\"width\":506,\"height\":80,\"caption\":\"McGuireWoods\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mcguirewoods\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/McGuireWoodsLLP\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mcguirewoods\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mcguirewoods_llp\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bc0551453c096673c4f702dc0057e61\",\"name\":\"Nicole Wolter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0c2d306c48b17282cf1ce2a3ea0581e0da93c1d405f3f77b22e62d5c4e48500?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0c2d306c48b17282cf1ce2a3ea0581e0da93c1d405f3f77b22e62d5c4e48500?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nicole Wolter\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today - McGuireWoods","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today - McGuireWoods","og_description":"The first appellate decision interpreting the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) clarified how the law applies to marketing arrangements within the healthcare industry, McGuireWoods partners Timothy Fry and Justin Givens wrote...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/","og_site_name":"McGuireWoods","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mcguirewoods","article_modified_time":"2026-01-28T20:56:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/06\/MW-social-media-icon.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@McGuireWoodsLLP","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/"},"author":{"name":"Nicole Wolter","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bc0551453c096673c4f702dc0057e61"},"headline":"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today","datePublished":"2025-10-13T18:54:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-28T20:56:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/"},"wordCount":173,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/","name":"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today - McGuireWoods","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-10-13T18:54:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-28T20:56:21+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/news\/in-the-news\/2025\/10\/mcguirewoods-partners-assess-first-ekra-appellate-ruling-in-westlaw-today\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"McGuireWoods Partners Assess First EKRA Appellate Ruling in Westlaw Today"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/","name":"McGuireWoods","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#organization","name":"McGuireWoods","url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/mcguirewoods-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/mcguirewoods-logo.svg","width":506,"height":80,"caption":"McGuireWoods"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mcguirewoods","https:\/\/x.com\/McGuireWoodsLLP","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mcguirewoods","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mcguirewoods_llp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bc0551453c096673c4f702dc0057e61","name":"Nicole Wolter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0c2d306c48b17282cf1ce2a3ea0581e0da93c1d405f3f77b22e62d5c4e48500?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b0c2d306c48b17282cf1ce2a3ea0581e0da93c1d405f3f77b22e62d5c4e48500?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nicole Wolter"}}]}},"taxonomy_info":{"news_type":[{"value":2416,"label":"In The News"}],"practice_tax":[{"value":148,"label":"Healthcare Compliance, Regulatory & Policy"},{"value":157,"label":"False Claims Act Investigations & Litigation"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Nicole Wolter","author_link":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/author\/nwolter\/"},"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/94810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/94810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100782,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/94810\/revisions\/100782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"industry_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry_tax?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"international_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/international_tax?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"location_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location_tax?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"media_role","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_role?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"news_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_type?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"people_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people_tax?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"practice_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/practice_tax?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"site_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcguirewoods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site_tax?post=94810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}