Department of Justice obtained over $4.7 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims in fiscal year 2016.
This is the third highest annual recovery in False Claims Act history, bringing the fiscal year average to almost $4 billion since fiscal year 2009, and the total recovery during that period to $31.3 billion.
Of that $4.7 billion recovered, $2.5 billion came from the healthcare industry, including drug companies, medical device companies, hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, and physicians. The biggest recoveries came from drug companies.
The largest recoveries this past year, $1.2 billion, came from the drug and medical device industry. Notable settlements included Wyeth and Pfizer Inc at $784.6 million and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp at $390 million.
According to the Department of Justice, hospitals and outpatient clinics came in second in the amount of dollars recovered at $360 million. This includes Tenant Healthcare, which paid $244.2 million to settle claims.
Since 2009, the government has recovered $19.3 billion in healthcare fraud cases.
Another large recovery came from the financial industry in the wake of the housing and mortgage fraud crisis. Settlements and judgments in cases alleging false claims in connection with federally insured residential mortgages totaled nearly $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2016.
Whistleblowers filed 702 suits in fiscal year 2016, and the Department recovered $2.9 billion in these and earlier filed suits this past year. The government awarded the whistleblowers $519 million during the same period.
