The U.S. Department of Justice reports $4.7 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims during the budget year that ended Sept. 30, an amount much higher than the $3.5 billion reported the prior year. And more than half came from the health care industry, including drug companies, medical device companies, hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories and physicians.

The False Claims Act gives authorities the power to fight alleged fraud in a wide variety of industries receiving federal funds. It also includes financial incentives for whistleblowers to file fraud lawsuits on behalf of the government.

The largest recoveries this past year – $1.2 billion – came from the drug and medical device industry.

Drug manufacturers Wyeth and Pfizer Inc. paid $784.6 million to resolve federal and state claims that Wyeth knowingly reported false and fraudulent prices on two drugs used to treat acid reflux, Protonix Oral and Protonix IV. The government alleged that Wyeth (before it was acquired by Pfizer) failed to report deep discounts available to hospitals, as required by the government to ensure that the Medicaid program enjoyed the same pricing benefits available to the company’s commercial customers. Wyeth paid $413.2 million to the federal government and $371.4 million to state Medicaid programs.

In another settlement against a drug company, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. paid $390 million based on claims that the company gave kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in return for recommending Exjade, an iron chelation drug, and Myfortic, an anti-rejection drug for kidney transplant recipients. The settlement includes $306.9 million for the federal government and $83.1 million for state Medicaid programs.

Hospitals and outpatient clinics accounted for $360 million in recoveries.

Tenet Healthcare Corp., a major hospital chain in the United States, paid $244.2 million to resolve civil allegations that four of its hospitals engaged in a scheme to defraud the United States by paying kickbacks in return for patient referrals. Tenet paid an additional $123.7 million to state Medicaid programs, and two of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty to related charges and forfeited $145 million, bringing the total resolution to $513 million.

In the medical lab arena, Millennium Health (formerly Millennium Laboratories) paid $260 million to settle allegations that it billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs for excessive and unnecessary urine drug and genetic testing and also that it gave free items to induce physicians to refer expensive and profitable lab tests to Millennium, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law. The settlement included $214.8 million in alleged false claims against federal programs, $26 million in alleged false claims against state Medicaid programs, and $19.2 million in related administrative claims.

The nation’s largest contract therapy provider paid $125 million to resolve claims that it had induced skilled nursing homes to submit false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation services that were not reasonable, necessary, and skilled, or that weren’t provided at all. The settlement was with RehabCare Group Inc., RehabCare Group East Inc., and their parent, Kindred Healthcare Inc. Cases involving nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities accounted for more than $160 million in settlements and judgments this past fiscal year.

The number of lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the Act has grown significantly since 1986, with 702 qui tam suits filed this past year – an average of 13.5 new cases every week. The growing number of qui tam lawsuits, particularly since 2009, has led to increased recoveries. From January 2009 to the end of fiscal year 2016, the government recovered nearly $24 billion in settlements and judgments related to qui tam suits and paid more than $4 billion in whistleblower awards during the same period.