The United States Department of Justice made an annual announcement on December 14, 2016 in which the amount of money that was recovered in 2016 in Civil False Claims Act settlements and judgments during the fiscal year 2016 were reported. As per the announcement, the DoJ recovered over $4.7 billion from businesses and individuals who were accused of false claims under Government programs and contracts.
Target Industries
The Department of Justice presented details about the industries that were involved in the most significant recoveries in its press release. It doesn’t come as a surprise that, much like the past few years, the healthcare industry happened to be the primary focus of the False Claims litigation.
According to the Government, recoveries from healthcare fraud claims went up to about $19.4 billion since 2009, which makes it over 50% of the total intake of the past 8 years.
Within the healthcare sector, it was through the drug and medical device companies that the DoJ recovered the largest sums. Nearly 25% of the total, which makes it over $1.2 billion, was paid to the Justice Department by these companies.
There was a range of offenses for which these companies were accused and included kickbacks to pharmacies, fraudulent pricing, and failure to inform the Government of available discounts for products.
Next in line were hospitals and outpatient clinics at $360 million. Their claims included kickbacks for patient referrals together with issues pertaining to the coding of Medicare and Medicaid claims.
