The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that medical fraud and abuse approaches 10% of all health care expenditures or $100 billion dollars. To reduce this thievery, the Justice Department and private lawyers have used the False Claims Act (FCA) as the fraud-fighting weapon of choice. Private lawyers are given standing to file civil suit on the Federal government's behalf by the FCA's qui tam, or whistleblower provisions.

These provisions gained renewed public attention following the False Claims Act Amendments Act of 1986. The 1986 Amendments made it easier for qui tam relaters to file claims and increased the rewards for doing so. Initially, the FCA was used to fight defense contractor fraud, but it was soon applied to other areas of government spending, including Medicare and Medicaid.

The qui tam provisions' growing application to medical fraud reflects their effectiveness. In 1988, medical fraud recoveries, using the qui tam provisions, amounted to a mere one percent of the total qui tam recoveries, with the majority defense-related. By 1993, that total had grown to 46 percent and has remained over one third of total qui tam recoveries ever since.

The FCA is broadly applicable to almost any situation where federal dollars are involved. Given the Act's current structure it seems that categories of qui tam cases will grow--limited only by the qui tam plaintiff's tenacity and ingenuity. This possibility is reflected in the many categories of cases resulting in qui tam recoveries including, but not limited to:

- failures to report fraud - education grants
- housing programs
- emergency relief programs
- fraudulent pre-selection of beneficiaries for Federal programs
- defense contracting
- agriculture support programs
- false certifications of compliance with environmental laws
- vehicle parts suppliers
- Medicare/Medicaid fraud

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