Overview 2012. A year of dialysis industry alignment and government enforcement

Abstract

All in all, in the health care industry, the Department of Justice, and related agencies increased enforcement activities in 2012. In December 2012 the Justice Department announced that it had secured $4.9 billion in settlements and judgments in civil cases involving fraud against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012. This figure is a record recovery for a single year, eclipsing the previous record by more than $1.7 billion. While this activity increased, in many False Claims Act cases, including those noted above in which the courts reached the merits of the cases, health care providers had some victories, including successful results at the trial and appellate levels. As a result, providers may take some comfort that the judicial skepticism towards the most aggressive False Claims Act prosecutions may be growing, and with it, the likelihood of providers' success in certain cases.