In Short
The Situation: The U.S. Department of Justice ( DOJ ) published its annual report regarding False Claims Act ( FCA ) recoveries for fiscal year 2020 (ending September 2020) and announced its priorities for 2021.
The Result: DOJ s 2020 FCA recoveries totaled more than $2.2 billion, a lower sum than in prior years. Despite the lower overall recoveries, health care fraud still represents the lion s share of FCA recoveries, encompassing cases relating to pharmaceuticals, providers, electronic health records ( EHR ), and opioids. COVID-related cases did not figure significantly in the 2020 FCA results. Nonetheless, FCA filings in 2020 were up substantially despite the global pandemic, closed courts, and the difficulties of remote work, with most of that increase coming from government-initiated cases.