The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported an indictment of three men alleged to have filed more than $100 million in genetic testing false claims directly or indirectly with the Medicare program. Two of the three defendants face as many as 65 years of incarceration if convicted, a clear sign that federal government agencies in the U.S. are more intent than ever on cracking down on fraud and abuse of federal health programs.

U.S. federal enforcement of the False Claims Act (FCA) violations tends to produce some outsized penalties, but the department isn’t shy about slapping six-figure fines on the smaller inhabitants of the med-tech space. DOJ reported that Schwenksville, Pa.-based Jet Medical Inc. and two affiliated companies will pay more than $745,000 to settle claims that Jet had introduced a nerve block device into interstate commerce without the FDA’s approval, a move that often draws the attention of federal government authorities other than the FDA.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has moved decisively in the area of mergers and acquisitions recently, but the agency also has a footprint in the enforcement space for health data disclosure. The FTC’s Ronnie Solomon said in a Dec. 1 public meeting that the agency will begin “thinking outside the box about what health information is in the 21st Century,” adding that the FTC is eyeing a more stringent enforcement regime regarding personal health data disclosures in the coming new year.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that it has arrived at a settlement of $45 million with Boca Raton, Fla.-based Modernizing Medicine Inc., an electronic health record (EHR) vendor that was accused of inducing referrals to a clinical lab for pathology services. The department stated that this settlement was the fourth such action against EHR vendors and is part of a concerted DOJ effort to “root out fraud” in the field, a signal that more enforcement against these companies is in the works.

The U.S. FDA’s regulation of commercial speech under the First Amendment has been controversial and has handed the agency several losses in court, but Arun Rao of the U.S. Department of Justice let it be known that DOJ is still keen on commercial speech enforcement. Rao said the case of Gonzalez v. Google, which will be heard by the Supreme Court, is an example of potentially precedent-setting litigation, and that manufacturers of drugs and devices may experience an uptick in enforcement depending on where the Supreme Court lands in Gonzalez.