United States of America, ex rel. Aharon et al. v. Nuvance Health, et al.
- Kenneth Karas
- 7:24-cv-00524
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In United States ex rel. Aharon v. Nuvance Health, Judge Karas granted Defendants’ motion to permanently seal confidential health, peer-review, and commercial materials.
The order limits public access to the documents and deposition transcripts identified in Defendants’ sealing request, including materials containing patient health information and confidential peer-review or commercial information. The Relators and Defendants are affected in their use and public filing of those materials.
What happened
United States of America, ex rel. Aharon et al. v. Nuvance Health, et al. involves Defendants’ request to permanently seal documents filed with their summary-judgment motion. The documents included patient health information, medical records, and information about a hospital quality review.
The request also covered information described as privileged, commercially sensitive, or confidential, including materials from NorthGauge Healthcare Advisors’ review of cardiac programs at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. The Relators did not object, and Defendants made additional transcript redactions requested by the Relators.
Judge Kenneth M. Karas granted the motion. The order therefore permanently seals the materials identified in the request, although the reproduced Annex A does not clearly show the complete list.
The detailed version
- United States of America, ex rel. Aharon et al. v. Nuvance Health, et al. · No. 7:24-cv-00524
- Kenneth Karas
- Sept. 30, 2025
Background
Defendants submitted an unopposed letter motion asking the court to permanently seal certain documents filed in support of their motion for summary judgment. The materials had been filed under temporary conditions while the court considered permanent sealing.
The letter stated that the materials contained confidential patient information, protected health information, medical records, personal identifying information, self-evaluative peer-review information, and commercially sensitive or otherwise confidential information. Some deposition transcripts were publicly filed with redactions, while unredacted versions were filed under temporary seal.
Arguments for Sealing
The letter stated that the case concerns allegations of Medicare fraud involving allegedly false claims for transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures that allegedly did not meet Medicare coverage requirements. Defendants’ motion papers referred to or attached medical records and other documents containing health information.
The requested sealing also covered documents and testimony concerning NorthGauge Healthcare Advisors’ independent external peer-review climate assessment of cardiac programs at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. The letter described that material as involving confidential information about hospital operations, processes, and patient care. Defendants also maintained that the material was protected by peer-review privilege, the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act, and a federal common-law protection for self-evaluative analysis.
The letter cited the general presumption that court filings should be publicly accessible, but argued that protecting patients’ health information and confidential peer-review and commercial information outweighed that presumption. The Relators did not object to permanent sealing, and Defendants applied additional redactions that the Relators requested for certain deposition transcripts.
Ruling
Judge Kenneth M. Karas granted the request to permanently seal the documents listed in Annex A. The reproduced Annex A appears to identify deposition transcripts, including transcripts of M. Jafar and M. Warshofsky, but its text is incomplete or unclear in the provided opinion. The order is a sealing ruling concerning public access to court materials; it does not decide the underlying Medicare-fraud allegations or the summary-judgment motion.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.