On May 21, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated a lower court ruling dismissing a qui tam lawsuit alleging improper unsupervised surgical services.  Medicare pays a teaching hospital for work performed by a resident when a teaching physician properly supervises the  resident.  The relators alleged that defendant hospital received Medicare payment for services performed by residents who were not properly supervised by teaching physicians.  The relators specifically claimed that the hospital permitted teaching physicians to supervise multiple residents performing operations simultaneously and thus the hospital failed to meet the Medicare requirements.  The district court dismissed the lawsuit based on its determination that the relators' allegations were substantially similar and thus based on disclosures in government reports and news articles.  The appeals court disagreed, finding that the relators' allegations were not substantially similar to those in the government reports and news articles.  The case is U.S., on the relation of Robert S. Goldberg and June Beecham, v. Rush University Medical Center.  The Seventh Circuit's decision is available here.  Tom Dowdell