The U.S. government continued to earn its longstanding reputation for its vigorous enforcement of the False Claims Act (FCA)[1] in 2022, either directly or through relator proxies. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recorded the second-highest number of FCA-related case resolutions (i.e., settlements and judgments) for a calendar year—351.[2] Notably, this near-record pace did not result in record-setting recoveries, as the $2.2 billion recovered in 2022 was the lowest government bounty for FCA matters since 2008.[3] Among 2022 FCA resolutions, the healthcare industry once again dominated. Seventy-seven percent, exceeding $1.7 billion of all 2022 recoveries, involved healthcare.[4]

Within healthcare, the government's recoveries reveal at least five enforcement trends:

• FCA enforcement continued its years-long trend of pursuing FCA cases that involve allegations of unnecessary healthcare services and improper billing;
• resolutions increasingly included individual liability;
• pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers continued to dominate large DOJ recoveries;
• there was a heightened focus on fraud in telemedicine and the electronic health record technology field because of the increasing use of and expanding payments for technologies in healthcare; and
• there was a spike in enforcement of fraud in pandemic relief programs.

Ultimately, as the healthcare industry remains the largest area of FCA-related recoveries, leaders and decisionmakers in the healthcare field should pay...

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