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Jody L. Rudman

A seasoned litigator, Jody is passionate about advocating for healthcare clients who face enforcement and compliance issues – both in and out of the courtroom. Jody has assisted clients across a wide range of industries at investigations, negotiations, mediations, pretrial matters, grand jury proceedings, civil lawsuits, criminal indictments, jury trials, sentencings and appeals.

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Three developments since October 1 extend the buildout of DOJ’s fraud enforcement infrastructure that we covered in our prior post on the Fraud Division’s Priorities Memo and Strike Force expansion. First, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (the Fraud Division) issued Directive 26-12, a memorandum on the Division’s corporate enforcement priorities (Corporate Enforcement Memo). Second, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (EDPA) announced the creation of an Interagency Fraud Task Force (IFTF) combining the Fraud Division with 14 other federal agencies. Third, on October 7, AAG McDonald issued Directive 26-13, directing a comprehensive, all-tools approach across charging, asset recovery, cooperation, pretrial detention, and sentencing. Together, these developments continue DOJ’s effort to formalize both the substantive standards it will apply to fraud cases and the interagency infrastructure used to identify them.

On September 30, 2026, the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law hosted the inaugural Heartland Government Enforcement & Investigations Conference. The day-long program brought together federal prosecutors, judges, state regulators, in-house counsel, and private practitioners across seven substantive sessions spanning DOJ enforcement priorities, federal sentencing and discovery practice, healthcare fraud, legal ethics and artificial intelligence, state antitrust enforcement, internal investigations, and securities and commodities regulation. Below is a summary of each session.

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Executive Summary

On September 18, 2026, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced two substantial revisions to the Justice Manual that will materially affect False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement and defense strategy:

  • Guidance Documents: DOJ will no longer treat sub-regulatory guidance (CMS manuals, FDA interpretive memos, etc.) as creating independently enforceable legal obligations in FCA cases. The government must prove violations of statutes, regulations, or contracts.
  • Qui Tam Dismissals: DOJ will more actively consider dismissing qui tam cases in which DOJ declines to intervene, both at the time of declination and as the litigation proceeds. (Under the Supreme Court’s Polansky standard, reviewing courts are likely to grant these motions in all but extraordinary circumstances.)

As we move into the last months of 2026, the contours of white-collar enforcement differ in some notable ways from those that defined 2025. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has undergone structural shifts and reorganizations, new task forces have reached early milestones, and enforcement tools that had seen less use have reemerged. Below are six developments worth watching.

Stethoscope on medical bills and health insurance claim form

Two announcements in the span of nine days reflect a significant expansion of federal healthcare fraud enforcement resources. On August 4, DOJ announced expansion of its Northeast Health Care Fraud Strike Force to Philadelphia, marking the fourth geographic expansion in less than a year. Nine days later, on August 13, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald issued a priorities memorandum for the National Fraud Enforcement Division (the Fraud Division), a new DOJ division announced by President Trump in January 2026 and formally established in April 2026, that places healthcare fraud second on a list of five enforcement priorities and describes plans to enhance the Strike Force model with additional resources, data analytics, and technology.

Columns at courthouse entrance

The first half of 2026 has confirmed that False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement is not only continuing at historically elevated levels but is expanding in scope, sophistication, and institutional backing. With the Department of Justice (DOJ) reporting more than $6.8 billion in FCA settlements and judgments for fiscal year 2025 (the highest annual total on record) and qui tam filings on pace to set another record in FY 2026, federal fund recipients across various industries face a sustained period of heightened scrutiny. This mid-year update synthesizes the most significant developments and offers practical considerations for navigating the current enforcement landscape.

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Between May 13 and June 1, 2026, the Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division secured six separate jury trial convictions in five federal districts. The defendants span virtually every healthcare setting and role, from a software platform executive to a rural nurse practitioner. In total, alleged losses exceed $1.1 billion to Medicare, Medicaid, and other health benefit programs. The convictions in these cases illustrate and reconfirm the breadth and activeness of the DOJ’s current healthcare fraud enforcement activity.

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On June 4, 2026, The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a decision affirming the dismissal of a False Claims Act (FCA) suit for failure to meet Rule 9(b)’s pleading requirements—i.e., failing to state with “particularity the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake.” The decision marks an important victory for FCA defendants faced with vague or imprecise allegations of wrongdoing.

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On June 24, 2026, Acting Attorney General of the United States Todd Blanche along with other senior government officials and leaders announced “the greatest combined federal and state effort in combating healthcare fraud in history.” The 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown heralded 455 defendants charged across 56 federal districts and 45 states and territories, in connection with more than $6.5 billion in alleged false claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs—all in a coordinated two-week window.