False Claims Act litigation is becoming more and
more common, especially in the health-care industry.
The economic incentives for individuals (often
employees or former employees) are tremendous.
Like the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower provisions,
which have received increasing attention of late, the
FCA provides that plaintiffs (referred to as ‘‘relators’’)
can obtain a percentage of the government’s total recovery
if they are ultimately successful.
In some cases, those ‘‘bounty’’ provisions have led to
eye-popping awards to whistleblowers in the tens of
millions of dollars. It is little wonder that the number of
qui tam FCA filings in recent years have been as many
as twenty-five times the number that they were in mid-
1980s.
Reproduced with permission from BNA’s Health Care Fraud Report, Feb. 4, 2015, 02/04/2015. Copyright 2015 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com.