Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler recently told Congress that False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases continue to be the most effective means of combating fraud and protecting the federal fisc. In his testimony before the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial & Antitrust Law, Readler announced that since 1986, FCA cases have recovered more than $53.6 billion in funds stolen from the taxpayers.
Of note, Readler told Congress that the Department of Justice “prioritizes pursuing false claims that target federal health care programs and threaten the safety and well-being of our citizens.” Fiscal Year 2016 “marked the seventh straight year the Department has obtained $2 billion or more in health care fraud recoveries,” and since 1986, “the Department has recovered more than $34 billion in federal health care dollars[.]”
Many FCA settlements this year not only included payment schemes implicating federal health care programs, but also wartime and other government procurement contracts; grants for small businesses; federally insured mortgages; and many other federal programs. Most of the cases resulting in these settlements were brought to the government by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act.
James Hoyer, P.A. specializes in False Claims Act cases. We greatly encourage you to contact your representatives to express your opinion on the FCA during this important period of government restructuring, especially while many positions in the Department have yet to be filled. We feel and the statistics show that the FCA is our best weapon in the fight against taxpayer fraud.
