By John Bentivoglio, Jennifer Bragg and Elizabeth Berry (June 20, 2018, 11:40 AM EDT) -- A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, highlights the important role that corporate integrity agreements, or CIAs, play in protecting federal health care programs when companies and individuals violate federal law.[1] From July 2005 through July 2017, the GAO found that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General entered into 652 CIAs — approximately 50 each year — with a high of 83 to a low of 37. A clear majority — 631 — of these agreements accompanied a health care fraud settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, and these settlements recovered more than $16 billion, according to the GAO....