Analysis: Rise in Corporate Cooperation Agreements in False Claims Act Settlements

A Bloomberg BNA analysis shows that as of May 20, 46 percent of health-care related False Claims Act settlements in 2016 have “included a corporate cooperation agreement.”

These agreements “include a demand that health-care entities cooperate in investigations of individuals who could be culpable in fraud” and “the rate of their inclusion in health-care FCA settlements jumped this year.”

This increase in cooperation provisions in FCA settlement “notably occurred after the Yates memo was issued in September 2015, and a recent public push by the DOJ to emphasize its intent to prosecute individuals for corporate fraud when they are culpable.”