Significant FCA Recoveries Reported for 2019

Fiscal Year 2019 was another banner year for False Claims Act recoveries, with the DOJ obtaining more than $3 billion in settlements and judgments under the Act. Of that amount, $2.6 billion came from the health care industry, and this is the 10th consecutive year that health care fraud settlements and judgments have exceeded $2 billion. 

Moreover, over $2.1 billion is a result of the actions of whistleblowers, who received $265 million for their efforts in exposing fraud. Read the DOJ's year-end FCA analysis here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-recovers-over-3-billion-false-claims-act-cases-fiscal-year-2019.

One of the settlements highlighted by the DOJ in their year-end analysis involved Duke University. A whistleblower brought an FCA claim against Duke, alleging that it induced the federal government to award it grant money through the use of falsified research data. According to the whistleblower, a clinical research coordinator at Duke faked data, while her supervisors ignored signs of fraud and misconduct. Interestingly, the government did not "intervene" in this lawsuit, and the whistleblower and attorneys prosecuted it -- successfully -- on their own. Duke agreed to pay $112.5 million to settle the lawsuit, with the whistleblower receiving $33.75 million. The repercussions of this lawsuit go beyond government funds, as there have now been 17 retractions of scientific papers that related to the problematic data. Read about this case here: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/25/706604033/duke-whistleblower-gets-more-than-33-million-in-research-fraud-settlement. 

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