On February 1, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the second-largest amount of False Claims Act settlements ever recorded (and the largest since 2014). The $5.6 billion in settlements and judgments all came rom civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in the Fiscal Year ending September 30, 2021. The total of settlements and judgments obtained through the False Claims Act since 1986 now total more than $70 billion.
Of the more than $5.6 billion, more than $5 billion directly relate to the health care industry, including drug and medical device manufacturers, managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, hospice organizations, laboratories, and physicians. These amounts reflect recoveries only from federal losses. In many cases, the DOJ secured additional recoveries for state Medicaid programs, too.
The Opioid Epidemic
One of the major contributors to the recoveries was significant resolutions with prescription opioid manufacturers Indivior and Purdue Pharma. For its part, Indivior Inc. and Indivior plc agreed to pay $209.3 million to the federal government, resolving allegations that the companies promoted Suboxone to physicians who would write prescriptions that were not for a medically accepted indication and were often diverted; allegations that the companies made false and misleading claims that Suboxone Film was less susceptible to diversion and abuse and to accidental pediatric exposure than other buprenorphine...
Pakistani actress and model Ayesha Omar has strongly denied a controversial statement falsely attributed to her on social media. In recent days, a statement circulated online claiming that the act...