Qui Tam

Health Care Fraud Cases and 2009-2010 Amendments to False Claims Act Discussed at National Fraud and Compliance Forum

By Finch McCranie, Esq.

At the annual Fraud and Compliance Forum in Baltimore that runs through Tuesday, the nation's top health care lawyers will be paying close attention to recent changes to the nation's primary whistleblower law, the False Claims Act. The "qui tam" provisions of the False Claims Act allow private citizen whistleblowers ("relators") to share in the government's recovery of damages.

As a former defense attorney who now represents whistleblowers, I have been asked to present a program at this conference with Rick Shackelford of King & Spalding, to discuss these major amendments to the False Claims Act--the first since 1986. Congress acted decisively in three recent major bills to restore the False Claims Act to its intended strength, in the face of court decisions that created obstacles to its use.

The recent amendments were part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-21, 123 Stat. 1617 (?FERA?); the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (?PPACA?); and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (the ?Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act?).

This week's forum is sponsored by the American Health Lawyers Association and Health Care Compliance Association.

An updated discussion of the False Claims Act after these 2009 and 2010 changes will appear soon on this Whistleblower Lawyer Blog. A brief summary of those important changes to the Act is below:

Full post as published by Whistleblower Lawyer Blog on September 27, 2010 (boomark / email).