Whistleblowers

Typical Whistleblowers in the Healthcare Industry

You may be wondering who can become a whistleblower.  The most general principle when it comes to Whistleblowing both in the healthcare industry and beyond is the fact that anyone can blow, as long as you have credible evidence or information about misconduct or illegal activities. In healthcare, whistleblowers play an important role in stopping healthcare fraud by bringing forward a case under the federal False Claims Act, the Stark Law, physician self-referrals, or the Anti Kickback statute. This often entails Medicare or Medicaid fraud, and other healthcare fraud that costs the government money. The fraud is committed in order to gain certain financial benefit, or to out-gun the competition, or outright mistreatment, maltreatment or misrepresenting something to either or the patient or the government or related insurance companies. Here are some examples of people who commonly blow in the healthcare industry:

  1. Employees:
    • The most common healthcare whistleblower comes from that of an employee. This includes current, former or even at-will employees of healthcare organizations such as hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and insurance providers. It can involve physicians, nurses, administrators, researchers, technicians, and other staff members who have firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing.  
  2. Patients or Families of a Patient:
    • Patients and especially families of patients are often exposed to misconduct or wrongdoing on behalf of a clinic, hospital or other healthcare professional places. Individuals who have received medical treatment or services and have evidence of fraudulent billing, medical malpractice, or other forms of misconduct may act as whistleblowers. One way to report this misconduct is reporting your experience and supporting documentation of your visit or treatments
  3. Government Employees:
    • This includes current, former or even at-will employees of healthcare workers at agencies responsible for overseeing healthcare, such as health departments, regulatory bodies, or law enforcement, who can act as whistleblowers if they come across misconduct during their duties.
  4. Contractors and Consultants:
    • Individuals who work with healthcare organizations as contractors, consultants, or vendors may also have access to sensitive information and can report misconduct if they become aware of it.

These are not the only types of whistleblowers in the healthcare industry, just the most common. In many cases researchers and scientists, regulatory and compliance personnel and even just mere observers of the healthcare facility can whistleblow. The most important thing to remember is that you have credible evidence and information of misconduct or wrongdoing.

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