In a significant departure from the general downward trend in False Claims Act1 (FCA) civil fraud recoveries over the past half-decade2—and as predicted last year3—recoveries in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 drastically increased compared to those in FY 2020. The US$5.6 billion in recoveries reported by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in its 1 February 2022 press release is more than double the US$2.2 billion recovered in FY 2020, and is the second largest total recovery ever recorded.4 Yet again, the health care industry was far and away the primary driver of civil fraud enforcement activity, accounting for 90% of total recoveries—over US$5 billion.5 Notably, health care civil fraud recoveries in FY 2021 were the highest ever in a single year by a large margin, representing nearly US$2 billion more than the previous high reported in FY 2012 (and over US$3 billion more than FY 2020).6 As expected, aggregate recoveries were much greater in qui tam matters in which the DOJ participated, either by filing its own complaint, intervening in relators’ qui tam actions, or otherwise pursuing a recovery.7 This fact held true for all qui tam activity generally, and for health care matters in particular.8
The substantial increase in civil fraud recoveries in FY 2021 is due, in large part, to the highly publicized US$2.8 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma in connection with the opioid manufacturer’s marketing and sales practices.9 However, even setting...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...