State False Claims Acts: which states have qui tam laws and what they pay

Roughly 33 states and territories have their own false claims act, and none of them work exactly like the federal one or exactly like each other. Some reach every dollar of state spending, from procurement contracts to unclaimed property. Others only reach Medicaid. Relator shares share a common floor of 15% on an intervened case across nearly every state in the table below, with ceilings reaching as high as 50% in California when the state declines to intervene. Texas’s often-cited 10% figure is not a floor at all; it is a discretionary cap that applies only when the relator’s case rests mainly on information that was already public. The federal government itself has an opinion about which state laws measure up, paying states a 10-percentage-point bonus on their share of Medicaid recoveries if their false claims act clears a federal review. This page is not a 50-state directory. It is a curated look at ten of the largest and most active state programs, how they interact with a federal qui tam suit, and what changes state to state so you do not assume Georgia’s law works like California’s.

How state and federal claims interact

When fraud hits a program the federal government funds entirely, such as most federal contracts, only the federal False Claims Act applies. When fraud hits a jointly funded program, most notably Medicaid, which every state administers with a mix of state and federal dollars, both the federal government and the state have an independent claim, and most relators bring a single action asserting counts under both the federal act and the relevant state act. The complaint stays under seal while the Department of Justice and the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit each investigate and independently decide whether to intervene. They do not always agree; the federal government can decline while a state MFCU intervenes, or the reverse, and either decision proceeds on its own track.

The federal government pays states an incentive for having a strong false claims act. Under Section 1909 of the Social Security Act, a state whose false claims act is reviewed and found “at least as effective” as the federal one in facilitating qui tam actions gets a 10-percentage-point larger share of whatever it recovers from Medicaid fraud. As of HHS-OIG’s current review list, 24 states have a qualifying law: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. Five reviewed states do not qualify: Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.

Florida is the clearest example of what disqualifies a state. OIG’s March 2011 determination found Florida’s law fell short on five separate points: a weaker retaliation remedy than the federal Dodd-Frank standard, no provision letting a later government complaint relate back to the relator’s original filing date, a broader public-disclosure bar that dismisses more cases than the federal standard would, a narrower definition of “original source,” and, notably, a total jurisdictional bar on state employees and former employees serving as relators at all. None of that stops a relator from filing in Florida. It only means the state itself collects a smaller bonus on what it recovers.

General-purpose acts versus Medicaid-only acts

Not every state law reaches the same ground. California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia all have general-purpose false claims acts that reach any fraud against state government, not just health care. Texas, Georgia, and Connecticut on this list are narrower: Texas’s Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act and Georgia’s State False Medicaid Claims Act only reach Medicaid fraud, and Connecticut’s act is limited to state-administered health and human-services programs. If your case is about a state procurement contract or a non-health state program in one of those three states, this specific statute will not reach it, even if the same conduct would be covered in California or New York.

New York stands out for a different reason: its false claims act is one of the few in the country that reaches tax fraud, added by amendments in 2010 and expanded through 2022, though only against taxpayers with at least $1 million in net income or sales and damages exceeding $350,000. Massachusetts goes the other way; its statute states outright that the false-claims provisions do not apply to any claim made to establish, limit, reduce, or evade a tax liability. The federal False Claims Act excludes tax claims entirely, which is why a separate program, the IRS whistleblower program, exists for federal tax fraud.

State false claims acts at a glance

State	Statute	Relator share (state intervenes / declines)	Scope and notes
California	Cal. Gov’t Code Sec. 12650-12656	15%-33% / 25%-50%	General purpose; OIG-qualifying
New York	State Finance Law Sec. 187-194	15%-25% / 25%-30%	General purpose, plus tax fraud above a $1M net income/sales threshold; OIG-qualifying
Illinois	740 ILCS 175	15%-25% / 25%-30%	General purpose; OIG-qualifying
Massachusetts	Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 12, Sec. 5A-5O	15%-25% / 25%-30%	General purpose, excludes tax claims; OIG-qualifying
New Jersey	N.J.S.A. 2A:32C-1 to -17	15%-25% / 25%-30%	General purpose; OIG-qualifying
Virginia	Va. Code Sec. 8.01-216.1 et seq.	15%-25% / 25%-30%	General purpose; OIG-qualifying
Connecticut	Conn. Gen. Stat. Chapter 55e	15%-25% / 25%-30%	State-administered health and human-services programs only; OIG-qualifying
Texas	Tex. Hum. Res. Code ch. 36 (Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act)	15%-25% / 25%-30%	Medicaid only; OIG-qualifying
Georgia	O.C.G.A. Sec. 49-4-168 et seq. (State False Medicaid Claims Act)	15%-25% / 25%-30%	Medicaid only; OIG-qualifying
Florida	Fla. Stat. Sec. 68.081-68.09	15%-25% / 25%-30%	General purpose; NOT OIG-qualifying (2011 determination)

How to file, step by step

1. Retain an attorney. Every state on this list, like the federal statute, requires a relator to be represented by counsel, since you are asserting the government’s claim, not only your own.

2. Identify every government whose money was defrauded. A single fraud scheme against a jointly funded program like Medicaid usually supports both a federal count and a state count, filed together.

3. File under seal in the appropriate court, following that state’s specific procedural rules; some states route the state-law counts through their own state court, others let them proceed as part of the same federal case, and the seal period, service requirements, and initial disclosure obligations differ by statute.

4. Expect two separate intervention decisions. The Department of Justice decides whether to intervene on the federal count, and the state Attorney General’s office, often through its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, decides separately on the state count. Waiting on one does not mean the other has decided anything.

5. Track each state’s own statute of limitations. Most states mirror the federal rule (generally six years from the violation, or three years from discovery, capped at ten), but confirm the specific number in your state’s statute before assuming it.

Retaliation protection

Every state false claims act on this list includes its own anti-retaliation provision, generally paralleling Section 3730(h) of the federal act: reinstatement, some multiple of back pay, and litigation costs and attorney’s fees if you win. The exact multiple, the filing deadline, and the burden of proof vary by state, so do not assume your state gives you the federal act’s three-year window or its double-back-pay remedy without checking the specific statute cited in the table above.

Common mistakes

Assuming every state has a general-purpose act. Texas, Georgia, and Connecticut on this list only reach Medicaid or state health programs. A procurement fraud claim in those states needs a different legal theory.

Assuming the relator share is the same everywhere. Most states on this list cap an intervened case at 25% of the recovery and a declined case at 30%. California is the outlier: its declined-case ceiling reaches 50%, far above the 25%-30% band that holds almost everywhere else. Read the specific state’s numbers before you estimate anything.

Treating a non-qualifying state as a dead end. Florida’s False Claims Act sitting outside OIG’s qualifying list changes how much of a Medicaid recovery the state itself keeps. It does not stop you from filing or collecting your relator’s share.

Filing only under state law when federal money is also involved, or the reverse. Match every funding source touched by the fraud in your complaint from the start; adding a count later is harder than including it up front.

Ignoring New York’s or Massachusetts’s tax rules. New York is one of the few states whose false claims act reaches tax fraud, above a $1 million net income or sales threshold. Massachusetts explicitly excludes tax claims. Assuming either state works like the other, or like the federal act, is a common and costly mistake.

If your case is a straightforward fraud against a federal program with no state money involved, start with the federal qui tam False Claims Act page instead, since the mechanics, deadlines, and relator-share math described there apply regardless of which state you live in. If the fraud is Medicaid billing, how to report Medicare and Medicaid fraud lists the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit channels next to the federal ones.