On February 7, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released its annual report of civil fraud recoveries for the prior fiscal year, along with its accompanying press release highlighting its civil enforcement efforts. Our top ten observations from DOJ’s release include:
- The reported $2.207 billion total civil fraud recovery is the lowest total recovery since 2008.
- 80% of the reported civil fraud recoveries resulted from enforcement efforts involving the healthcare industry. This figure is lower than last year’s reported total (89%) but generally in line with the last several years.
- DOJ initiated the most False Claims Act matters since 1993 (in line with the trend reported from the prior two years). Yet, DOJ reported the lowest total recovery from government-initiated FCA matters since 2013.
- The lowest total recovery associated with qui tam lawsuits in which the U.S. intervened ($776 million) since 2004 was reported.
- The highest total recovery from qui tam lawsuits in which the U.S. declined to intervene ($1.18 billion) was reported.
- The highest relator share awards in declined qui tam lawsuits (totaling more than $347 million) was reported.
- The prior two figures were driven almost entirely by the $900 million settlement reached by Biogen in September 2022.
- More than 6,500 qui tam lawsuits have been filed by relators within the last 10 years.
- The number of qui tam lawsuits filed increased by 9% from last year to 652. This figure nears the annual average since 2013 after an unusually low number of qui tam lawsuits were filed last year.
- Future enforcement results are increasingly likely to be driven by recoveries associated with pandemic relief funds in the coming years.
Be on the lookout for our Eleventh Annual Healthcare Fraud Year in Review for 2022, which we will release in the coming days.