Whistleblowers collect a high percentage of awards in healthcare suits brought under the False Claims Act, according to Bloomberg news.
From the article:
The False Claims Act lets private citizens sue on behalf of the government and share in any recovery. Whistleblowers were paid $2.39 billion from 1987 to 2009, or 16 percent of the $15.19 billion collected in False Claims lawsuits where the U.S. government joined the case, according to the Justice Department.
The two men sharing a $45 million award after AstraZeneca settled claims of off-label marketing are repeat whistleblowers, according to Bloomberg. James Wetta, a salesman at Eli Lilly & Co. and later at AstraZeneca, won millions of dollars from both companies after suing them over their sales practices. The other man, Stefan Kruszewski, a psychiatrist, has sued the Pennsylvania Public Welfare Department, a residential treatment center, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, receiving settlement money in all of the cases.
John T. Boese, a lawyer who has defended companies in False Claims suits, said whistleblowers are overpaid.
Every dime we give a whistleblower is money that’s supposed to go to the government and doesn’t,” said Boese, of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in Washington. “Would a whistleblower be willing to bring a case for 5 percent or 10 percent? Do we really have to give out that kind of money to people? They’d do the same thing for far less money, so they’re unjustly enriched.”
Others defend settlements for whistleblowers as fair compensation for putting their careers on the line.
Related: AstraZeneca Settles Off-Label Marketing Case for $520 MillionWhistleblowers face three certainties, according to Patrick Burns, a spokesman for Taxpayers Against Fraud, a Washington- based advocacy group. They lose their jobs, face industry blackballing, and endure “tension and turmoil” since the cases are sealed and they can’t discuss them with anyone, he said.
