Total Health Care Fraud recoveries nationwide are way up, but recoveries of stolen funds are not the same throughout the country. The Office of Inspector General recently released updated figures for Medicare and Medicaid fraud recoveries. A total of more than $1.84 billion was recovered in fiscal year 2010. States leading the way include New York, Texas, Florida and California. It is probably no coincidence that those states have strong state False Claims Act statutes and well-funded state and federal resources to combat health care fraud. States with weaker laws and less concentration on health care fraud enforcement do not fare as well. The Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services has issued an interactive map which shows recoveries by state. Though Colorado was certainly not the worst in amounts recovered from fraudsters ($6.45 million), it lags behind many other states, such as Missouri ($49 million), Utah ($29 million), Tennessee ($71 million) South Carolina ($30 million) and Massachusetts ($65 million).

Colorado recently passed its own state False Claims Act, but it has received little publicity. Whistleblowers that file health care fraud cases under the Colorado Medicaid False Claims Act are entitled to as much as 30% of the amount the state recovers. Like the federal False Claims Act, the identity of the whistleblower is kept secret during the initial investigation by the government, because the case is sealed. A state claim under the Colorado Medicaid False Claims Act may be filed simultaneously with a federal case as a "pendent" claim in a federal False Claims Act complaint that seeks to recover both state and federal health care funds from persons or corporations that defraud Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare or other government funded health care benefit programs.