Since October, 68 healthcare lawsuits filed under the qui tam, or whistle-blower, provisions of the False Claims Act have been unsealed, according to a National Law Review report.
Here are five things to know about the unsealed cases:
1. Fifty-three of the 68 lawsuits were filed from 2012 to present, and the remaining cases were filed before 2012, with one case dating back to July 2007.
2. The government declined to intervene in 43 percent of the unsealed cases, the government intervened in 31 percent of the cases, and it was unclear from unsealed filings whether the government had intervened in 26 percent of the cases.
3. Nearly 70 percent of the whistle-blowers were current of former employees of the defendants they filed their lawsuits against.
4. Some of the whistle-blowers had previously had contractual relationships with the defendants they filed their cases against, with the whistle-blowers in at least 8 of the cases being former business partners of the defendants.
5. More than half of the unsealed healthcare False Claims Act cases involve both state and federal claims.
More articles on the False Claims Act:
DOJ recovers $2.3B in healthcare False Claims Act cases in FY 2014
WellCare faces False Claims lawsuit filed by 6 former administrators
Dignity Health to pay $37M to settle False Claims Act case