On February 1, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it collected more than $5.6 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments in fiscal year 2021. This is the largest annual total since 2014, and the second largest in FCA history. Though $2.8 billion in recoveries are the result of the civil portion of the settlement with Purdue Pharma, the government still collected $2.8 billion from other FCA defendants. This number is in line with recent annual trends and marks an increase from the $2.2 billion collected in fiscal year 2020.

Key FCA Enforcement Trends

Healthcare Fraud

Healthcare recoveries accounted for $5 billion of the $5.6 billion total, once again making healthcare fraud the leading source of DOJ’s recoveries. This number, though inflated by the $2.8 billion claim that Purdue Pharma agreed to allow in its bankruptcy, includes $2.2 billion recovered from other healthcare fraud defendants. DOJ announced its main areas of focus in fiscal year 2021, and moving forward, are opioid abuse, Medicare Advantage Part C fraud, illegal kickbacks, and billing of unnecessary medical services. Among Medicare billing schemes that were pursued under the FCA in 2021, several involved medical services that were unnecessary, unreasonable, and performed by unskilled employees, or medical devices that manufacturers knew were defective but nonetheless billed Medicare for them. Others involved illegal patient referrals, including one scheme in which an...

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