DOJ to Use False Claims Act to Fight Opioid Crisis
Washington, D.C. February 28, 2018. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new strategy to battle the devastating opioid crisis, the creation of the Prescription Interdiction and Litigation (PIL) Task Force. The new initiative will target painkiller manufacturers and distributors who overprescribe and allow the misuse of prescription drugs by people with addiction.
The PIL Task Force will tackle the opioid crisis “at its root,” Sessions said in a press conference on Tuesday. It will use the False Claims Act (FCA) and other tools to crack down on pain-management clinics, drug testing facilities, and physicians that over-prescribe of opioid painkillers.
The PIL Task Force will also expand on the efforts of the existing Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, which uses sophisticated data analysis to identify and prosecute individuals who are contributing to the opioid epidemic, including pill-mill schemes and pharmacies that unlawfully divert or dispense prescription opioids for illegitimate purposes.
The opioid epidemic has been driven by the willingness of doctors to over-prescribe painkillers. More than 2.5 million Americans are currently addicted to opioids, with an increase in drug deaths by 28% since 2010. According to the Department of Justice, “[i]n 2016, an estimated 64,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses,” with most of these deaths caused by opioids.
In 2016, the federally-funded Medicare prescription drug program paid more than $4 billion for opioids, according to Sessions. The PIL Task Force will review existing state and local government lawsuits to determine if federal law can assist in their resolution. The federal government will seek reimbursement through these lawsuits for the substantial costs it has borne through law enforcement and health programs in response to the opioid crisis.
“The DOJ’s use of the False Claims Act as a tool in the battle against the opioid crisis is a testament to its effectiveness to uncover fraud and misuse of government funds,” said Stephen M. Kohn, a partner in the D.C.-based whistleblower law firm of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto and author of The New Whistleblower’s Handbook.
