According to a recent Reuters report, the United States healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year.  Incredibly, the report found that "fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams."  Medicare fraud is outright theft of our tax dollars.  The False Claims Act is a potent weapon to combat fraud on the Medicare system.   But for the statute to be effective, whistleblowers with inside information about how medical providers are stealing from Medicare must step forward, report the fraud, and file False Claims Act lawsuits.

The new FERA amendments to the False Claims Act broaden the scope of conduct covered and the types of whistleblowers who are protected from retaliation (or at least compensated after the retaliation takes place).  Whistleblower bounties range from 15%-30% of the recovery.  Coupled with greater whistleblower protection, the incentives are in place for those with knowledge of fraud on our ever expanding Medicare system to step forward, serve our Country and be rewarded for their service.