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Changes and Growth for the FCA: Good News for Whistleblowers
Monday, December 20th, 2010
With the passage of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“PPACA”) and the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (“HERA”), 2010 has seen important legislative change come to the FCA. And, on the whole, this change has been good, especially for whistleblowers.
One positive outcome of the new legislation is that there are now fewer restrictions on the ways in which a whistleblower can bring fraudulent conduct before the government. Until 2010, a whistleblower was barred from filing a suit under the False Claims Act if the conduct he was exposing had already been brought into the public domain through the media, federal, state, or local reports, audits and investigations, or criminal, civil, hearings and proceedings.
Under the new amendments the definition of ‘public disclosures’ has been limited. This is a direct benefit to future whistleblowers as parties will be able to bring suit under the False Claims Act for publications which were previously unapproved (different word here: not allowed?). It will be exciting to think of what new ways of attacking fraud and corruption will be seen in the coming years as a consequence of this beneficial legislation.
Sources: Griffith, Joseph “Changes in Qui Tam Whistleblower Cases Under the False Claims Act – A Review For Lawyers & Attorneys”, Ezine Articles 2010
Tags: 2010, False Claims Act, Healthcare, legislation, Qui Tam
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