The government collected a whopping $4 billion last year — the largest sum ever recovered in a single year — through its health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts, according to a new report Monday.

“This is the highest annual amount ever recovered from people who attempted to defraud seniors and taxpayers,” the Department of Health & Human Services said in a statement.

HHS and the Justice Department jointly created the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) in 2009, with the intention to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

“Through this initiative, we are working in partnership with government, law enforcement, industry leaders, and the public to protect taxpayer dollars, control health care costs, and ensure the strength and integrity of our most essential health care programs,” associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, said in a statement.

The agencies said $4 billion was stolen between Oct. 1 2009 and Sept. 30, 2010.

The HEAT task force issued 140 indictments against 284 defendants who fraudulently billed Medicare more than $590 million.

Federal prosecutors opened 1,116 criminal health care fraud investigations and a total of 726 defendants were convicted. 146 defendants were imprisoned, averaging more than three years of jail time.

But the biggest chunk of money collected came not from individual fraudsters but from large drugmakers — accounting for half of the $4 billion recovered.

(Source: CNN Money)