The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Civil Division released its annual fraud statistics on February 7, covering fiscal year 2022. Settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act (FCA) exceeded $2.2 billion in the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2022. Consistent with previous years, a significant portion of the recoveries related to the healthcare industry.
The government uses the FCA as a powerful tool to prevent fraud and abuse in federal healthcare programs and other government programs. Under the statute, the government may seek treble damages and per-claim penalties, and whistleblowers filing qui tam lawsuits may recover substantial bounties (between 15% and 30%). Since 1986, FCA recoveries have amounted to more than $72 billion, and DOJ touts an increase in recoveries each fiscal year.
2022 Recoveries Decreased
In FY 2022, however, DOJ recovered a mere $2.2 billion from FCA settlements and judgments, far less than the $5.6 billion recovered in FY 2021 and the recoveries in other recent years.
DOJ buried the headline by releasing the data on the same day as the State of the Union Address and leading off its press release by noting that the government and whistleblowers were party to the second-highest number of settlements and judgments in absolute terms in a single year. DOJ also pointed out that the $2.2 billion reflects only the federal share of FY 2022 FCA recoveries and that the department was “instrumental” in obtaining additional recoveries for...
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