The U.S. Department of Justice went after fraud in the health care industry in a big way during Fiscal Year 2018.

Of the $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments that the government obtained during the year through False Claims Act cases, more than $2.5 billion involved health care fraud—an increase of more than $329 million over health care fraud recoveries for the prior fiscal year, according to DOJ statistics.

Overall, however, FCA recoveries dropped by more than $584 million compared with last year, when the DOJ's recoveries totaled $3.4 billion. The reason for the decline wasn't entirely clear and a DOJ spokesperson was not available for comment due to the federal government shutdown. But in January 2018, two memoranda, one issued by then-U.S. Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand and the other by civil fraud chief Michael Granston, suggested some changes in the DOJ's view of the False Claims Act that were perceived as more industry-friendly.

The largest recoveries in Fiscal Year 2018 came from the drug and medical device industry. One player in that sector, AmerisourceBergen Corp. and its subsidiaries, paid $625 million to settle charges filed under the whistleblower provisions of the FCA, alleging that it illegally distributed misbranded drugs for cancer patients.

Whistleblower complaints spurred the bulk of the DOJ's cases over the past year and accounted for $2.1 billion of the agency's recoveries.

“Whistleblowers have played a vital role in unmasking fraudulent schemes that might otherwise evade detection,” Joseph “Jody” Hunt, assistant attorney general of the Civil Division, the DOJ's largest litigating division, said in a prepared statement.

In another health care fraud case that ended with a substantial recovery, California-based independent physician association HealthCare Partners Holdings, doing business as DaVita Medical Holdings, forked over $270 million to the government to resolve its liability in an alleged Medicare scheme.

Other health care companies that settled FCA cases with the DOJ include Pfizer and United Therapeutics Corp., which paid $23.85 million and $210 million, respectively, after being accused of using illegal kickbacks to promote drugs that they manufactured.

The DOJ stated in a Dec. 21 announcement that its enforcement actions over the past year show that it continues to “place great importance on enforcing the safeguards contained within the Anti-Kickback Statute” under the FCA.

While health care-related recoveries increased in 2018, statistics show that the DOJ pursued roughly the same number of new FCA cases during 2017 and 2018. But the DOJ saw greater recoveries last year in fraud cases in which the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense were not the primary client agencies.

In other fraud recoveries, Deloitte & Touche paid $149.5 million after the government accused it of falling short on its responsibilities as an independent auditor for a mortgage lender client. The DOJ alleged that Deloitte failed to detect the mortgage lender's alleged scheme involving the sale of fictitious or double-pledged mortgage loans.

And, finally, at least one celebrity contributed to the DOJ's fraud-related recoveries last year. Lance Armstrong, the notorious former professional road racing cyclist, paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that he illegally profited from sponsorship payments from the U.S. Postal Service while lying about not using performance enhancing drugs.

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