This is the fourth post in the Dorsey FCANow Blog’s FCA Basics Series covering the fundamentals of the False Claims Act (“FCA”), outlining FCA procedure, and highlighting key facets of FCA practice. Today’s post focuses on procedural requirements, including the FCA’s statute of limitations rules, statute of repose, first-to-file rule, and public disclosure bar. FCA Statute of Limitations The statute of limitations on an FCA...
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments surpassed $6.8 billion in FY 2025—the highest single-year total in FCA history.1 DOJ reported a record 1,297 qui tam filings and 401 new government investigations opened for the year. Healthcare fraud enforcement once again dominated the recoveries, accounting for more than $5.7 billion of the total. By the Numbers2 Total FCA recoveries:...
Last week, after fourteen years of litigation, United States ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu, Inc. arrived at its likely end after the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois rejected relators’ bid for a new trial after a jury returned a defense verdict earlier this year. Filed in 2011 and unsealed in 2015, SuperValu led to a landmark Supreme Court decision on the...
On Monday, May 19, 2025, Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum establishing the “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative” (the “Memorandum”), in the latest signal that DOJ intends to aggressively enforce the False Claims Act in pursuit of the administration’s goals. According to the Memorandum, DOJ has launched a joint enforcement effort between the Civil Division’s Fraud Section (“Civil Frauds”) and the Civil Rights Division...
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts recently secured a settlement agreement resolving allegations that Molina Healthcare, Inc. and its prior subsidiary, Pathways of Massachusetts, which provide mental health services in Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts, violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq. and the Massachusetts-equivalent to the FCA. The settlement agreement also resolves similar claims brought by employees...
On April 21, 2022, the Northern District of Georgia granted a motion to dismiss a False Claims Act (“FCA”) suit brought against ERMI LLC (“ERMI”), a medical device manufacturer, describing the complaint as a “shotgun pleading.” This action was brought by Relator Elizabeth Cooley, ERMI’s former chief compliance officer. Cooley alleged that ERMI, its CEO Dr. Thomas P. Branch, and other defendants defrauded federal insurance...
In October 2021, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced its new Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, led by the Civil Division’s Fraud Section, to enhance its ongoing efforts to address cybersecurity threats. The initiative utilizes the False Claims Act (“FCA”) to prosecute cybersecurity fraud by federal contractors and grant recipients who put government information or systems at risk through deficient cybersecurity standards. Cybersecurity risks that the initiative...
The Department of Justice recently announced that a home-health services company has agreed to pay over $45,000 to resolve alleged False Claims Act (“FCA”) violations. Professional Family Care Services, Inc. (“PFCS”), a North Carolina corporation, faced allegations of fraudulent billing for work by an employee that was convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to prison for her role in the alleged scheme. For two years...
