A question for the powers that be in Denver:
If you could reduce fraud against the state and its municipalities and recover millions of dollars a year in the process, would you do it?
Clearly a no-brainer, by any measure. Especially these days, with Colorado —like the feds and most states — pumping out so much funding for both new infrastructure and Covid relief.
Enter House Bill 22-1119, which would enact the State’s first full-fledged False Claims Act. Modeled after the federal statute, the law would allow for whistleblowers to serve as private attorneys general and sue those committing fraud against the state (and local governments too), rewarding them with up to 30% of any recovery.
The federal False Claims Act has been on the books since the Civil War, when President Lincoln passed it to go after war profiteers trying to dupe the Union Army with lame mules and faulty weapons. The provisions to empower and reward whistleblowers have only gotten stronger since then, and for good reason: The government recovers billions of dollars under the statute every year, largely from actions originated by whistleblowers.
Colorado is already halfway there with its 2010 Medicaid False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to go after Medicaid fraudsters. The proposed legislation would expand the whistleblower reach beyond healthcare fraud to any type of fraud against the state and its municipalities. It is an especially important step for a state that is no stranger to...
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