DOJ’s False Claims Act Recoveries Top $2.9 Billion in FY 2024, but Health Care Numbers Dip—What Could FY 2025 Hold for Health Care Enforcement?

On January 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing its fiscal year (FY) 2024 False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries and reported that settlements and judgments exceeded $2.9 billion in 2024—up from $2.68 billion in FY 2023.

Recoveries from entities in the health care and life sciences industries continue to represent the lion’s share of the dollars. However, health care recoveries have dropped year over year, and 2024 saw a decrease in the number of cases pursued by the DOJ on its own. What does the future hold as we look forward to a new administration? History might provide some interesting guidance.

Overview of the Statistics

While the 423 FCA cases filed by the DOJ in FY 2024 represented a marked decrease from the 505 FCA cases filed the previous year, FY 2024 saw the highest number of qui tam actions filed in history. FY 2024, coincidentally, ended on the same day (September 30, 2024) that a Florida judge ruled in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates that the qui tam provisions of the FCA were unconstitutional.

Qui tam relators, or whistleblowers, filed 979 suits in FY 2024, up from 713 in FY 2023 and eclipsing the prior record of 757 filings set in FY 2013. 

Whistleblower and DOJ cases combined resulted in 558 settlements and judgments, on par with 566 last year.

Counting the $2.9 billion recovered in FY 2024, total recoveries under the FCA since the 1986 amendments now exceed $78 billion and have exceeded $2 billion annually for 16 consecutive years.

Health Care Statistics

While several of the health care statistics dipped slightly, recoveries from the health care sector remained steady at $1.68 billion (compared to $1.86 billion in FY 2023) and drove the overall FCA recovery figures. 

While the FCA statistics show overall increases in total fraud recoveries and the number of cases filed by whistleblowers in FY 2024, the health care statistics portray a slightly different picture. While more health care cases were filed by relators in FY 2024 than in FY 2023, the number of cases brought by the DOJ, on its own, dropped by more than 10 percent compared to FY 2023. Other health care statistics that dropped in FY 2024 compared to FY 2023 included:

• total health care fraud recoveries,
• recoveries in cases pursued by the government,
• recoveries in cases in which the government intervened, and
• recoveries in cases where relators pursued matters on their own.

In DOJ’s press release announcing the FCA recoveries, the agency reaffirmed its commitment to enforcement in the health care sector, highlighting key recoveries in the following areas: 

• health care entities contributing to the opioid crisis;
• providers billing federal health care programs for medically unnecessary services and substandard care;
• cases alleging false claims in the Medicare Advantage program;
• matters involving unlawful kickbacks and Stark Law violations;
• pandemic-related fraud (including cases involving improper payments under the Paycheck Protection Program and alleged fraud affecting Medicare and other federal health care programs for services related to COVID-19 testing and treatment); and
• cybersecurity enforcement and holding contractors accountable for compliance with applicable cybersecurity requirements (one example was a case against the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Research Corp., which we covered in an earlier blog post).

What to Expect in FY 2025

As a general matter, the FY 2024 statistics demonstrate that FCA enforcement continued to be a top DOJ priority, particularly within the health care sector.

As we look ahead to the incoming Trump administration, it is noteworthy that the first Trump administration saw almost 370 more health care FCA cases brought by relators than those filed during the Biden administration. The first Trump administration also saw the highest number of health care-related FCA cases brought in a single year by the DOJ. History would suggest a continued focus on health-care related FCA enforcement during President Trump’s second term.  

Epstein Becker Green Attorney Ann W. Parks contributed to the preparation of this post.