The 2016 numbers are in, and the health care industry (which includes life sciences companies) had to pay out a total of $2.5 billion (more than half of the total $4.7 billion recovered in 2016) in settlements and judgements from civil cases which involved fraud and false claims against the government. Wyeth and Pfizer, Inc. paid $784.6 million of the $2.5 billion; the payments were made to the federal government and to state Medicaid programs.
What I found most remarkable about the DOJ report was that 60% of all funds recovered by the DOJ in last 30 years under the False Claims Act ($55.17 billion), was recovered between fiscal years 2009 and 2016. This begs the question: Why did the Department of Justice under the Obama administration recover $31.3 billion of the total $55.17 billion recovered by the DOJ between 1986 and 2016? Is it the only administration to actively enforce the law and investigate healthcare fraud, housing and mortgage fraud, and fraudulent activities related to federal contracts and programs? Was there just an unprecedented amount of fraud and abuse during the Obama administration? Was President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (established in 2009)just incredibly effective?
The second question is: will the healthcare industry and its pharmaceutical and device companies will continue to pay the proverbial lion’s share of monies recovered by the new adminstration?
In case anyone wondered where the recovered funds are diverted to, according to the DOJ, “…The beneficiaries of these efforts include veterans, the elderly, and low-income families who are insured by federal health care programs; families and students who are able to afford homes and go to college thanks to federally insured loans; and all of us who are protected by the government’s investment in national security and defense. In short, Americans across the country are healthier, enjoy a better quality of life, and are safer because of our continuing success in protecting taxpayer funds from misuse.”.