Confidentiality and Anonymity in False Claims Act Cases: Your Privacy Belongs in the First Conversation

A False Claims Act whistleblower files the complaint under seal, and we address anonymity and confidentiality with you from the first conversation. You may know exactly why the government is paying a bill it should never have received, while your first concern is who will know you spoke up. That concern deserves the same attention as the evidence. We bring both into building your case.

Are False Claims Act Whistleblowers Anonymous?

We work through anonymity questions with you and False Claims Act whistleblower lawyers who understand your kind of case. Your role, your workplace and the information you know belong in that discussion. So does anything you are weighing about who will know.

The False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions put the complaint and the whistleblower’s material evidence before the government. The Congressional Research Service’s 2009 study, Qui Tam: The False Claims Act and Related Federal Statutes, describes a system that combines private individuals bringing cases with government authority over those cases.

A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers.

An Unnamed Caption in the Hanford Billing Case

The Hanford labor-billing case began under a court caption using a numbered whistleblower label. Questions about using a pseudonym in your own case are something we take up with you and government contracting whistleblower lawyers.

Bechtel and AECOM agreed to a $57,750,000 civil settlement over labor charges at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in Washington. The project was intended to treat radioactive waste. Electricians, millwrights, pipefitters and other skilled workers supplied the labor needed to build and maintain it.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington, four workers at the project brought forward the labor-mischarging allegations and filed the whistleblower case. The government joined it. The announcement says the workers would receive $13.75 million from the settlement. The office and the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General’s Western Field Office jointly investigated.

Workplace Confidentiality and the Life Care Complaint

Workplace confidentiality and an internal complaint are matters we discuss with you in the context of what happened inside the business. The government’s case against Life Care Centers of America shows how much that context can contain.

In its complaint, the United States alleged that the nursing home operator pushed facilities to reach high therapy-billing targets unrelated to patients’ needs. The complaint described the payment system then in use: Medicare paid facilities a daily rate that depended heavily on patients’ rehabilitation needs. More intensive therapy categories carried higher payments. The government’s allegation was that corporate targets displaced the clinical judgment behind those categories.

The complaint quoted a letter from rehabilitation staff at Life Care’s Estero facility. Their concern was the conflict between the company’s policy and what they were being encouraged to do:

The government’s complaint also described an internal hotline policy promising confidential treatment. It alleged that investigations were frequently conducted by the same corporate rehabilitation personnel responsible for the billing targets and pressure.

We see the absurdity in the government’s allegation: the people responsible for the targets were investigating complaints about the targets. The staff’s own words explained what a payment total could not: why clinicians believed the company’s financial demands were overriding patient care.

For a healthcare insider, that connection between professional judgment, management instructions and billing may be the heart of the case. Your questions about workplace confidentiality belong in our conversation with the health care fraud whistleblower lawyers we bring in. We work on the conduct and those questions together.

Privacy Is Part of Building the Case

A contractor’s timekeeping system and a nursing facility’s therapy records call for different industry knowledge. We bring in whistleblower lawyers whose experience fits the government program, the alleged conduct and your situation.

You do not need to arrive with an answer to every privacy question. Bring us the questions alongside what you know about the transactions and decisions inside the business.

Your Concerns Belong in the Conversation

Speak to one of our Whistleblower Experts about the false billing you have seen and your confidentiality concerns. We connect the conduct to the government’s money, bring in False Claims Act whistleblower lawyers with the right experience and stay beside you as we build your strongest False Claims Act case.