On December 21, just before the government shutdown began, the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its fiscal 2018 False Claims Act (FCA) statistics.  According to DOJ, FCA judgments and settlements totaled over $2.8 billion for the year.

While this number is the lowest total since 2009, the reason for this result is related to a drop in non-health care related cases.  In fact, the statistics show that health care remains the top driver of FCA activity, both in the number of cases filed and total dollars recovered; only about $370 million of the $2.8 billion, or about 13 percent, came from non-health care cases. Almost all of the fiscal 2018 number–over $2.5 billion–came from cases involving the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This appears to be the largest percentage of the total recoveries since DOJ began reporting these statistics in 1987. $1.9 billion of this $2.5 billion came from qui tam cases (also resulting in over $266 million in relator share awards). Indeed, 2018 continued the trend into the ninth consecutive year where health care case recoveries exceeded $2 billion.

The overall number of new FCA matters also fell for the second year in a row; 767 new cases were filed in 2018, with 645 of them filed by relators. Interestingly, the number of new HHS cases also is trending downwards. 2018 saw 506 new HHS cases, 446 of which were filed by relators. In 2017, DOJ reported 550 new HHS cases (495 from relators) and 573 new HHS cases (503 from relators) in 2016, which was the all-time high record of new HHS cases. The 2018 total is consistent with number of new HHS cases filed since 2010.

DOJ’s press release notably emphasized three policy issues outside of dollars that have defined DOJ’s FCA activities in 2018: the continued focus on alleged violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320-7b; the movement seek dismissal of unmeritorious cases as discussed in the Granston Memo; and “holding individuals accountable” by seeking monetary resolutions with individuals in addition to corporations. We should expect all three of these trends to continue into 2019.

DOJ’s 2018 False Claims Act statistics can be found here and the press release can be found here.