The growth in False Claims Act cases and recoveries over the past 28 years is overwhelmingly attributable to the surge healthcare-related qui tam lawsuits, according to a recent report by Mintz Levin.
Here are six statistics on healthcare False Claims Act cases over the past two decades.
1. Since 1987, the number of cases the Department of Justice has identified as involving HHS has increased significantly. "These cases, consisting primarily of healthcare-related claims, have grown from close to zero in 1987 to over 400 cases per year since 2011," according to Mintz Levin.
2. HHS cases constituted a majority of all False Claims Act cases by the late 1990's.
3. The growth trend in healthcare False Claims Act cases is largely a function of privately filed qui tam actions.
4. In 1992, the number of qui tam filings surged past the number of False Claims Act filings by the government. Since then, the significant increase in the total number of healthcare False Claims Act cases has been attributable to qui tam filings.
5. For most of the past 10 years, about 80 percent of all healthcare False Claims Act recoveries have resulted from qui tam lawsuits.
6. Rapid growth in False Claims Act cases across all industries has been fueled by the steep increase in healthcare filings.
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