On January 9, 2020, DOJ announced it recovered more than $3 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019. DOJ reports that $2.6 billion of those recoveries related to matters that involved the healthcare industry, including drug and medical device manufacturers, managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, hospice organizations, laboratories, and physicians. Both the overall recoveries and healthcare industry recoveries represent an increase over last year; in fiscal year 2018, DOJ reported more than $2.8 billion in recoveries, $2.5 billion of which related to healthcare industry matters.

DOJ also reported that more than $2.1 billion of the recoveries arose from lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. A total of 633 qui tam suits were filed this past year – representing an average of more than 12 new cases every week.

DOJ reiterated its continuing commitment to using the False Claims Act and other civil remedies to redress fraud by holding individuals accountable. DOJ cited a number of settlements in fiscal year 2019 involving individual liability for owners and executives.

The DOJ press release is available here.