The federal government saw a return of nearly $1.9 billion in health care fraud settlements and judgments in 2021. Of this $1.9 billion, the Medicare Trust Funds received $1.2 billion, and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) received roughly $98.7 million.
The Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) annual report, released Monday, details the distribution of funds, as well as the enforcement actions of the Department of Justice (DOJ) throughout 2021.
Overall, the federal government won or negotiated more than $5 billion in health care fraud judgments and settlements.
As far as enforcement actions, the DOJ opened 831 new criminal health care fraud investigations in 2021. Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges in 462 cases involving 741 defendants. In total, 312 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes last year.
The DOJ also opened 805 new civil health care fraud investigations and had 1,432 civil health care fraud matters pending at the end of 2021.
The OIG’s investigations were responsible for 504 criminal actions against individuals or entities that engaged in crimes related to Medicare and Medicaid. They also included 669 civil actions, which include false claims and unjust-enrichment lawsuits filed in federal district court, as well as civil monetary penalty settlements.
Plus, almost 1,700 individuals and entities were excluded from participating in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health...
"Anura brother (elder sibling), making a system change," reads a Sinhala-language Facebook post shared on April 27, 2026, referring to Dissanayake. The post includes an image that appears to show ...