Benjamin J. McMichael (University of Alabama), Mackenzi Barrett (Vanderbilt University), W. Kip Viscusi (Vanderbilt University), A Constitutional False Claims Act, 102 Wash. U. L. Rev. (forthcoming):
The False Claims Act (FCA) represents one of the most important sources, if not the most important source, of liability in the healthcare system and other industries that routinely provide goods and services to the federal government. Originally designed to police fraud during the Civil War, the FCA has become a general statute to enforce many other complex legal schemes. Because failure to comply with complicated statutes and regulations can lead to a reimbursement claim being defined as false under the FCA, the FCA serves as a blunt instrument to cudgel those who fail to comply with the minutiae of federal regulatory schemes. And because the FCA provides for treble damages and a civil monetary penalty of nearly $30,000 per claim and because individual relators can file suit on behalf of the United States and collect a bounty up to 30% of the recovery, the FCA has become a vehicle for pervasive and extremely large damages.