{"id":107,"date":"2007-10-07T10:33:31","date_gmt":"2007-10-07T10:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/2007\/10\/part_2_the_false_claims_act_in.html"},"modified":"2021-06-11T17:52:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T21:52:59","slug":"part_2_the_false_claims_act_in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/part_2_the_false_claims_act_in\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 2: The False Claims Act and the Growing Number of State False Claims Acts With Qui Tam Whistleblower Provisions&#8211;the Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is Part 2 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qui-tam-litigation.com\/who-we-are.html\">whistleblower lawyer blog<\/a> of a detailed overview of the federal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/the_whistleblower_statute_the_1\/\">False Claims Act<\/a> and the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/why_states_are_passing_their_o\/\">state False Claims Acts<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/whistleblower_law_attorneys_to_1\/\">qui tam whistleblower<\/a> provisions.  It is based on an article by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/new_qui_tam_whistleblower_law_2\/\">whistleblower lawyer blog<\/a> author <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qui-tam-litigation.com\/msullivan.htm\">Michael A. Sullivan<\/a>, and is reprinted with permission of the <em>Georgia Bar Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This Part 2 discusses the sound policy reasons underlying the False Claims Act.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I.\tWhy A &#8220;False Claims Act&#8221;?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Fraud is perhaps so pervasive and, therefore, costly to the Government due to a lack of deterrence. GAO concluded in its 1981 study that most fraud goes undetected due to the failure of Governmental agencies to effectively ensure accountability on the part of program recipients and Government contractors. The study states: <\/p>\n<p>For those who are caught committing fraud, the chances of being prosecuted and eventually going to jail are slim. . . . The sad truth is that crime against the Government often does pay. <\/em> <em>[5]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fraud-and allegations of fraud-plague government spending at every level.  Today, as the federal and state governments struggle to fund the billions of dollars spent annually on health care through Medicare and Medicaid; national security and local security efforts; Hurricane Katrina and other disaster relief; and government grants and programs of every description, there is no shortage of opportunities for fraud against the public fisc.\t<\/p>\n<p>The federal False Claims Act has been the federal government&#8217;s &#8220;primary&#8221; weapon to recover losses from those who defraud it. <em>[6] <\/em> The Act not only authorizes the government to pursue actions for treble damages and penalties, but also empowers and provides incentives to private citizens to file suit on the government&#8217;s behalf as &#8220;qui tam relators.&#8221;  Over the past 20 years, recoveries for the federal government have grown dramatically since Congress amended the Act in 1986 to encourage greater use of the qui tam provisions, as part of a &#8220;coordinated effort of both the [g]overnment and the citizenry [to] decrease this wave of defrauding public funds.&#8221; <em>[7]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The federal False Claims Act has been successful in recovering billions of dollars, increasingly through qui tam lawsuits brought by private citizens.  In light of the federal Act&#8217;s successes, Congress in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 <em>[8] <\/em> created a large financial &#8220;carrot&#8221; for states that adopt state versions of the False Claims Act.  Any state that passes its own &#8220;False Claims&#8221; statute with qui tam or whistleblower provisions that are at least as effective as those of the federal Act becomes eligible for a 10% increase in its share of Medicaid fraud recoveries. <em>[9]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Thus, Georgia&#8217;s and other states&#8217; impetus in enacting these new state False Claims Acts in 2007 was this incentive of more dollars.  In 2007 to date, Georgia, New York, and Oklahoma have joined the 16 other states that have enacted some version of a &#8220;False Claims&#8221; statute. [10]  At least a dozen other states <em>[11] <\/em>are considering enacting similar statutes of their own so that they, too, qualify for increased funds under the Deficit Reduction Act.<br \/>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/part_2_the_false_claims_act_in\/#more-107\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is Part 2 by whistleblower lawyer blog of a detailed overview of the federal False Claims Act and the new state False Claims Acts with qui tam whistleblower provisions. It is based on an article by whistleblower lawyer blog author Michael A. Sullivan, and is reprinted with permission of the Georgia Bar Journal. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-false-claims-act","category-medicare-and-medicaid-fraud","category-recent-developments","category-state-false-claims-acts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Part 2: The False Claims Act and the Growing Number of State False Claims Acts With Qui Tam Whistleblower Provisions--the Basics &#8212; Whistleblower Lawyer Blog &#8212; October 7, 2007<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is Part 2 by whistleblower lawyer blog of a detailed overview of the federal False Claims Act and the new state False Claims Acts with qui tam &#8212; October 7, 2007\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/part_2_the_false_claims_act_in\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Part 2: The False Claims Act and the Growing Number of State False Claims Acts With Qui Tam Whistleblower Provisions--the Basics &#8212; 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