False Claims Act and Qui Tam DOJ Statistics for 2012

The Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has released the False Claims Act/Qui Tam statistics for FY 2012, which ended September 30, 2012. They can be found here. As in previous years, the overwhelming number of all cases filed pursuant to the False Claims Act were filed by qui tam relators and a great majority of the recoveries came from the health care area.

For 2012 False Claims Act (FCA) and Qui Tam (QT) matters, the DOJ statistics reveal the following:

• 782 FCA/QT new referrals, investigations, and qui tam matters. This number has increased slowly over the last two years as it was 773 in 2011 and 715 in 2010. QT actions continue to drive the overwhelming majority of new matters: almost 83% or 647 of the "new" matters were QT's.

• Total FCA/QT combined recoveries (settlements and judgments) were $4,959,333,498. Of that total:
• Almost $1.605 billion (32%) recovered in FCA cases filed by the government;
• Approximately $3.325 billion (67%) recovered in QT cases where government intervened;
• $29.387 million (.059%) recovered in QT cases where government did not intervene; and
• Total relator share awards: nearly $431 million (8.7% of total recoveries and judgments).

The DOJ divides the FCA/QT new matters and recoveries into three major categories: statistics related to Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, and Other. Not surprisingly, new matters and recoveries relating to health and human services (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, VA, Tricare) continued to maintain a commanding lead in 2012:

•  436 new health-care related matters, of which 412 were QT cases
• Over $3 billion (61%) in total health care related recoveries, almost $2.5 billion in QT cases; and
• Over $284 million in relator share awards.

• 69 new defense related matters, of which 57 were QTs
• Almost $167 million (3%) in total defense related recoveries, only $2 million were non-QTs; and
• Over $19 million in relator share awards.

A. Brian Albritton
December 27, 2012