Prioritizing Patients or Impropriety?: Why the 8th Circuit’s Cairns Decision sets a Dangerous Precedent Jeopardizing Patient Protection and Government Investment in Federal Programs

In July 2022, the 8th Circuit established a stricter causation standard for plaintiffs alleging a False Claims Act claim through a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute in United States ex rel. Cairns v. D.S. Medical LLC. The requirement that a plaintiff demonstrate but-for causation stands in stark contrast to the 3rd Circuit’s “at least one claim standard.” In this article, Nicole Beachboard addresses how the 8th Circuit’s decision enforces an onerous burden on the plaintiff, undermines statutory authority, and facilitates defendant misconduct.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lawjournalonline/1115/thumbnail.jp

U.S. Bureau of Land Management: The Perils of Implementing Strategic Information Technology

The case describes the challenges faced by IT managers at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in their efforts to upgrade the Bureau\u27s IT infrastructure while developing the largest, most complex strategic application ever attempted at the Bureau. After expending 15 years of effort and $400 million, the BLM cancelled the program. The case identifies obstacles faced by IT and non-IT managers in attempting to implement strategic information technology in large, complex organizations. Obstacles identified in this case include: the BLM\u27s culture of autonomy that tended to undermine support for the initiative, technological limitations that impacted the selection of technical standards, and organizational resource and knowledge constraints that adversely impacted the BLM\u27s ability to manage such a large IT development effort successfully

Automating Land Management: An Analysis of Information Technology Management Challenges at the Bureau og Land Management

Given society’s massive investment in information technology and the potentially catastrophic consequences of information technology (IT) failures, understanding how IT management policies influence IT management practice and, ultimately, organizational success in implementing and employing information technology is becoming increasingly crucial. This paper describes a study that took place in a large government agency and sheds some light on the interaction of IT policy, practice and success (or, in this case, failure). Following an exploratory case-study research design, the study employed both interpretivist- and positivist-oriented perspectives to develop a descriptive model that identifies significant factors influencing levels of policy compliance. The model describes the central roles that organizational culture and knowledge play in mediating the effects of information technology, organizational resources and IT management policies on IT policy compliance, implementation and use. The model reflects study participants\u27 common-sense understanding of how IT policies work and why they sometimes fail to work. While the factors identified in the model may not be surprising, the manner in which they interact provides provocative insights into why organizations often fail to achieve desired levels of policy compliance and how focusing on policy compliance might lead to unanticipated consequences