The federal government collected about $20 million in civil fraud recoveries from 2013 to 2017, with most related to False Claims Act violations, according to the Bass, Berry & Sims Healthcare Fraud and Abuse Review 2017. Here are five statistics.
1. Civil fraud recoveries amounted to $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2017, down from $4.8 billion in 2016.
2. The federal government's civil fraud recoveries dropped by $2.4 billion from 2014 to 2017, which the report attributes to the government's healthcare fraud enforcement efforts.
3. About 92 percent of judgments and settlements the federal government reported in 2017 were filed under the FCA's qui tam provisions.
4. Whistleblowers filed 674 qui tam lawsuits in 2017, compared to 706 the previous fiscal year. At the beginning of 2018, DOJ implemented a policy change to begin filing motions to dismiss qui tam cases it believes lack merit.
5. Whistleblowers have recovered more than $2.8 billion from judgements and settlements in the past five years.