Last year, through healthcare fraud judgments, settlements and other proceedings, the federal government recovered $4.2 billion the Justice and Health and Human Services departments announced on Monday.
The two departments released their annual report detailing the efforts of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse (HCFAC) program, which is operated jointly by the Justice and Health and Human Services departments.
[See also: Healthcare fraud recoveries set record in 2012]
Among the report's details, of the $4.2 billion recovered, about $2.4 billion was returned to Medicare and more than $835.7 million was returned to Medicaid. Since the HCFAC program began in 1997, it has returned more than $23 billion to Medicare.
"This was a record-breaking year for the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services in our collaborative effort to crack down on health care fraud and protect valuable taxpayer dollars," said Attorney General Eric Holder in a press release. "In the past fiscal year, our relentless pursuit of health care fraud resulted in the disruption of an array of sophisticated fraud schemes and the recovery of more taxpayer dollars than ever before. This report demonstrates our serious commitment to prosecuting health care fraud and safeguarding our world-class health care programs from abuse."
The report also disclosed that the federal government spent $1.6 billion on funding the HCFAC program in 2012. According to the report, the return on investment for the program over the last three years is $7.90 for every $1 spent. The ROI over the last three years, the government reported, is $2.50 higher than the average ROI for the full length of the HCFAC program.