DOJ Demonstrates Continued Focus on FCA Claims against Healthcare Entities

In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder and Former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius created an interagency task force, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), to increase coordination and optimize criminal and civil enforcement. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the task force yielded historic results resulting in the recovery of $12.1 billion from January 2009 through September 2013. Of that amount, the DOJ claims it recovered more than $2 billion each year for healthcare fraud, reaching $2.6 billion in 2013. In 2014, this trend has continued with two Florida hospitals settling FCA claims with the DOJ last spring for $85 million and $7 million and another two healthcare entities recently settling with the DOJ for $2.2 million and $35 million.