Litigation And Enforcement Under Civil False Claims Act: An Upcoming National Program

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that the federal government recovered $2.6 billion in health care fraud matters in 2013. It was the fourth straight year that the department recovered more than $2 billion in cases involving health care fraud. Only days ago, a federal task force charged 90 people, including 27 doctors, nurses, and other health care providers, with generating $260 million in fraudulent Medicare billings.

Clearly, the government has ramped up its enforcement of health care fraud cases, the vast majority of them filed under the False Claims Act. This increased enforcement has coincided with the 2010 enactment of the Affordable Care Act, which includes a number of anti-fraud provisions.