Home Health & Hospice Week

With all the new regulatory and payment burdens hitting home care providers, don't overlook an important area that needs your attention -- safeguarding against whistleblowers and their costly lawsuits. To take home a part of the money recovered in a federal qui tam case, the government must recover at least $1 million -- that's the only condition. In cases recovering $1 million or more, a whistleblower will make between $100,000 and $300,000 at least. In larger cases, she gets at least 10 percent of the money recovered. The largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history against Pfizer Inc. paid six whistleblowers more than $102 million. Whistleblowers often come from the ranks of your employees, so make sure to set up a good employee complaint reporting system as part of your corporate compliance plan, legal experts recommend. Employees who feel heard by management may not resort to outside lawsuits.