False Claims Act: 2017 Year-In-Review

False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries topped $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2017, marking the eighth straight year of annual recoveries in excess of $3 billion. Healthcare cases, including ones involving drug and device companies, accounted for most of the total, at roughly $2.47 billion. Recoveries in Defense Department cases increased to approximately $220 million, nearly double the 2016 figure, and the number of government-initiated cases in that sector more than doubled, reflecting in part the results of investigations from the country's long-running military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. The value of settlements and judgments in the non-healthcare and non-defense category dropped by half to roughly $1 billion, of which more than $500 million was from the financial services sector. In 2017, 674 new qui tam cases were filed—an average of more than 12 a week—down from the year before but still at historically high levels.¹