2025 Was a Banner Year for False Claim Act Qui Tam Filings and DOJ Recoveries
The Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued its annual statistics and press release on False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments for fiscal year 2025 covering the period Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025. During this period, DOJ recovered $6.888 billion—its highest total ever and a 119.8% increase over 2024’s $3.133 billion. DOJ’s press release, statistics and 2025 Fact Sheet highlight several trends that companies should note.
- Whistleblowers Again Set a New Record for Qui Tam Filings
Whistleblowers (i.e., relators) filed 1,297 qui tams in 2025 – the highest number ever and a 32.3% increase 2024’s total of 980. Notably, 798 filings (61.5%) were filed in the “other” category outside health care and defense—a 38.3% jump from 2024.
By contrast, DOJ’s own “direct filed” referrals and investigations declined for a second year. DOJ reported 401 direct filed matters in 2025, down from 425 in 2025 and 506 in 2023, which was DOJ’s the biggest year ever.
Whistleblowers also obtained record recoveries where DOJ declined to intervene: $2.288 billion, a 634% increase over the prior year and the highest ever. Two judgments—Janssen and Behnke—accounted for 82.5% of that amount.
- Large Cases Drove Most of DOJ’s Recoveries
Unlike past years, DOJ did not report how many FCA matters it resolved in 2025. We surmise that the omission likely reflects a drop in smaller, routine settlements. Instead, with larger cases predominating the mix in 2025, nine cases—seven health care, one defense, and one customs/tariff matter—produced 63.4% (or $4.369.2 billion) of the year’s total recoveries.
Two of these nine cases were brought and successfully tried by relators without the federal government’s intervention:
- US ex rel Behnke v. CVS Caremark Corp. ($289 million judgment).
- U.S. ex rel. Penelow v. Janssen Products LP (a $1.6 billion judgment)
As we previously reported, FCA jury trials remain rare because of the statute’s low liability threshold, treble damages, and nuclear penalties. Yet Janssen, CVS Caremark and the government’s $948.8 million trial judgment U.S. v. Omnicare and CVS Health Corp. show that defendants are trying to be more aggressive in fighting FCA cases—though with little success so far.
- Health Care Continues to Dominate FCA Activity.
Health care qui tams remained strong in 2025: 458 were filed ( 35.3%), the fifth highest number ever and a 23.7% increase over 2024.
The federal government reported 183 health care-related direct-filed investigations, its highest total on record. This figured far exceeds the 87 direct-filed healthcare matters in 2024 and the previous high of 121 matters in 2020.
Of the overall $6.888 billion recovered, $5.721 billion (83%) came from health care matters. DOJ identified three priority areas for health care fraud:
- Managed care
- Prescription drugs
- Medically unnecessary care
- Trump Administration Policy Objectives Are Not Reflected In the 2025 Settlements and Judgments
In addition to health care fraud, the Trump Administration has emphasized several novel FCA enforcement priorities to which the FCA has not been previously applied: “aggressively investigate and pursue” federal contractors who engage in DEI-related civil-rights violations, alleged antisemitism, or gender-related healthcare services. DOJ’s June 11, 2025, Civil Division Memorandum outlines these priorities. These novel applications of FCA liability did not exist prior to this Administration.
None of DOJ’s 2025 FCA settlements or judgments reflect these new priorities. That omission is unsurprising. Government FCA investigations—whether direct-filed or intervened qui tam matters—most often take years. For example, DOJ announced that it had intervened in a major Medicare Advantage case in 2025, but the relator filed that qui tam almost four years earlier in 2021.
Still, DOJ’s press release announces that among DOJ’s 401 investigations and referrals include “matters announced as Administration policy objectives.” Given the public nature of the Administration’s signature FCA priorities, we anticipate that DOJ will face tremendous pressure to produce public cases and settlements soon. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported recently that President Trump would seek “1 billion dollars in damages from Harvard over allegations of antisemitism” and that the “President has been directly involved in the negotiations.”
- DOJ Continues to Incent Self-Disclosure
DOJ reaffirmed that it will reward entities that self-disclose misconduct, cooperate meaningfully, and take effective corrective action. DOJ again emphasized that some 2025 settlements reflected reduced penalties or damage multipliers because of such cooperation. DOJ cited two examples in its Fact Sheet: DRI Relays, Inc. and Global Plastics LLC/Marco Polo In’t LLC.
DOJ views cooperation to include:
- Self-disclosure
- Assistance quantifying losses
- Sharing results of internal investigations
- Providing facts not known to the government, and
- Taking remedial measures, such enhancing compliance programs or removing culpable employees.
Conclusion
2025’s all-time high in filed qui tams will certainly lead to increased FCA enforcement in future years. Healthcare, as always, will remain an area where businesses should anticipate vigorous FCA enforcement both by relators and DOJ. In addition, companies engaged in large scale importing of goods subject to tariffs and customs dues should anticipate sustained enforcement pressure.
We also expect DOJ to begin announcing cases tied to the new Trump Administration policy priorities. However, whether DOJ can build on 2025’s record setting trends is unclear. Many of the 2025 cases it settled or tried were years in the pipeline and DOJ’s emphasis on nontraditional FCA priorities could take resources from its traditional cases.
Finally, businesses should redouble their self-compliance efforts, and in the event they do discover probable FCA violations, should avail themselves of the Trump Administration’s focus on self-disclosure and cooperation credits.
Please contact A. Brian Albritton, Raquel Ramirez Jefferson or any member of the Phelps Health Care team if you have questions or need advice or guidance.
