For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) recovered more than $3 billion under the False Claims Act. Of this amount, recoveries for fraud against US health care programs amounted to $2.4 billion. This is the 2nd year in a row that justice has recovered greater than $3 billion and the grand total amount recovered for all claims since 2009 was $8.7 billion.
The provisions of the False Claims Act allow individuals to file claims on behalf of the government. These individuals are known as relators and/or whistleblowers who report fraud, oftentimes an act that is fraught with risk and personal sacrifice. Assistant Attorney General West thanked these citizens with the following statement. "We are tremendously grateful to whistleblowers who have brought fraud allegations to the government's attention and assisted us in this public-private partnership to fight fraud."
US healthcare programs that sustained fraud include Medicare and Medicaid programs, health programs for Federal employees and Veterans, as well as the TRICARE program, which is administered by the Department of Defense for the benefit of Uniformed Service members, retirees and their families. Use of the False Claims Act for the recovery of federal health care dollars has yielded in excess of $6.6 billion dollars just since January 2009, which is the most recovered under this act during any previous 3 year period.
This was a top priority for the Obama administration. In support of this goal, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) was created in May of 2009 in order to improve coordination between agencies and to step up enforcement.
Of the amounts recovered for healthcare fraud, the feds report that claims against the pharmaceutical industry represent the largest source of recoveries. Allegations against drug companies include illegal pricing for the purpose of profit maximization as well as criminal and civil charges against GlaxoSmithKline for adulterated drugs paid for by federal healthcare programs. Unfortunately, industry executives define these payouts, off-the-record, as a cost of doing business. Patrick Burns of Taxpayers Against Fraud, writes, "We are not seeing a decline in pharmaceutical fraud cases. Instead we are seeing the addition of other fraud streams, such as medical devices and pension fraud."
Justice also continues to aggressively pursue fraud in government procurement and financial fraud in the housing and mortgage industries in the aftermath of the financial disaster. To this end, the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was established by President Obama in 2009 and is tasked with the pursuit of individuals and corporations contributing to the crisis. Nearly $358 million of the $3 billion collected in fiscal year 2011 resulted from this effort.
Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Representative Howard Berman (D-California) have been leading the way since 1986 when they successfully led Congress to amend the False Claims Act, which included enhanced qui tam provisions that incented individuals to blow the whistle on fraud when they saw it. These individuals, along with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also supported the Fraud enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. This act made possible additional improvements to the False Claims Act and many other fraud statutes.
Assistant Attorney General West stated that, "Twenty-eight percent of the recoveries in the last 25 years were obtained since President Obama took office. These record-setting results reflect the extraordinary determination and effort that this administration, and Attorney General Eric Holder in particular, have put into rooting out fraud, recovering taxpayer money and protecting the integrity of government programs."
Sources:
Justice Department Recovers $3 Billion in False Claims Act Cases in Fiscal Year 2011, Department of Justice, December 19, 2011.
Pharma Fraud Continues to Fill the US Treasury, by Ed Silverman, Pharmalot.com, December 19, 2011
