According to the release, the Department of Justices said that 985 qui tam healthcare fraud cases are pending, 200 qui tam cases have to do with pricing and marketing pharmaceuticals and 205 qui tam cases allege procurement fraud with the Defense Department. This number is up from 1,000 pending cases in Jan. 2008.
“These cases were brought forward by patriotic individuals who are sticking their necks out to do what’s right. We can’t just let these whistleblowers sit in limbo for years while the federal bureaucracy takes its time deciding what to do,” Sen. Grassley said in the release.
Aside from the cases pending a DOJ decision, there are 130 pending qui tam cases the DOJ has joined and about 490 cases that the DOJ has declined to intervene. On average, it takes 12.3 months for the DOJ to make a decision on whether to join a qui tam case, according to the release.
In FY 2009, 65 settlements and judgments under the False Claims Act recovered more than $2.8 billion in taxpayer dollars that would otherwise be lost to fraud, according to the release.
Read the release about the pending healthcare fraud qui tam cases.
