In a year when the Department of Justice recovers $2.5 billion from the healthcare industry in False Claim Act judgements and settlements, can there really be a silver lining?

Every December, the Department of Justice (DOJ) releases its annual False Claims Act (FCA) recovery statistics for the preceding fiscal year. The recovery statistics, as they have for the past several years, indicate the DOJ considers the healthcare industry to be the number one target for FCA enforcement activity. Of the $3.7 billion in judgments and settlements recovered by the DOJ in 2017, $2.5 billion of that came from the healthcare industry. That is a tremendous number and indicates that the DOJ’s enforcement priority continues to be healthcare—as it has been for the last several years. In 2016, the DOJ recovered $2.6 billion from the healthcare industry. And in 2015, the DOJ recovered $2.2 billion from the healthcare industry. Healthcare has been a focus of DOJ’s FCA enforcement strategy for several years—and it shows no signs of changing any time soon. 
Continue Reading The 2017 Department of Justice False Claims Act Recovery Statistics: