The Otago District Health Board is not yet pursuing any insurance claims for the $16.9 million fraud of the board.
Chief executive Brian Rousseau said the board was awaiting the outcome of the Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings being taken by the Crown against former board employee Michael Swann before taking any substantive "further step" in pursuing its insurance claims.
The board had policies which provided cover for losses of up to $7 million, he said.
Mr Rousseau said it would be premature to make any comment on the potential application of the proceeds of any successful insurance claim.
He was responding by email to a question asking if he would expect there to be any suggestion from the Minister of Health that recovered money should be returned, because it could be argued the Government had effectively funded the fraud.
The matter had not been raised, he said.
Mr Rousseau also advised the board's legal expenses since February 1 this year relating to all aspects of the Swann cases totalled $134,852.02.
This amount included expenses related to the board's High Court civil proceedings against Swann, Kerry Harford and others, and those related to the forthcoming trials of Swann and Robin Sew Hoy, ongoing asset-protection, the sentencing of Swann and Harford, the Crown's Proceeds of Crime proceedings, insurance claims and all other matters.
The Otago Daily Times reported in February that legal expenses and costs related to protecting the assets had cost the board just over $1.3 million.
The costs since then raise the total fraud-related costs (including the initial $16,902,145) to $18,346,784.90.
The board has said if the amount of time spent by staff on fraud-related matters could be determined, costs would be much higher still.
