Thursday, December 14, 2006

Whilstleblower Law at 20 Years Old: Gift that Keeps Giving

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, one of the authors of the 1986 legislation that amended the Civil War-era False Claims Act to empower private citizens to protect the U.S. government from fraud, has written an article about the success of the act in The Conservative Voice. Grassley points out that the law has helped the U.S. government recoup $18 billion in settlements over two decades, including $3.1 billion in fiscal year 2006.

Click the following link for the full tribute to the False Claims Act at 20.

Friday, December 08, 2006

U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Colorado Whistleblower's Case

The Supreme Court of the U.S. has agreed to decide whether a Colorado whistleblower can receive one-third of a jury award against a nuclear-weapons plant operator who was guilty of wrongdoing.

The case began in 1989, when engineer James Stone filed a civil lawsuit claiming that Rockwell International Corp., lied to the federal government about its handling of waste at the now-demolished trigger plant north of Golden, CO. Under the federal False Claims Act, whistleblowers seeking compensation must be the “original source” of information leading to a jury verdict.

In 1999, a federal court ruled Stone was entitled to a third of the $4.2 million award against Rockwell. An appeals court agreed, causing Rockwell - now owned by the Boeing Co. - to appeal to the Supreme Court. Click the following link to read the full account of this whistleblower case in denverpost.com.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Pharmaceutical Online chronicles Healthcare Fraud

A recent feature in Pharmaceutical Online reviews 10 of the most notable False Claims Act cases in the healthcare industry, leading with the $900 Million settlement by Tenet Healthcare in July. According to the feature, one of every three dollars recovered through false claims cases relate to healthcare fraud.

Click the following link to read the complete feature on healthcare fraud.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

N.J. University denies Retaliating Against Whistleblower

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) disputes a charge in a lawsuit filed this week that it retaliated against a whistleblower who charged it with overbilling the federal government by millions of dollars.

The lawsuit filed by Kathryn Gibbons says senior officials at the university concealed that the school overbilled the federal government by tens of millions of dollars and then retaliated against her because she wouldn’t help in the cover-up.  Read the full account of this false claims act suit from The Asbury Park Press.

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