Qui tam suits are a major enforcement tool in the health-care industry, particularly in pharmaceuticals. Any drug company violating the law is liable to be guilty of defrauding the government, because a substantial proportion of prescription drugs are purchased by the taxpayer; public programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, and the Veterans Administration pay for prescriptions written for their patients. This monetary loss gives the United States the grounds to go after pharma, to claw back the money. When the Justice Department extracts a serious financial penalty from a drugmaker, and
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