Sure, the new announcement from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance actually says that what they’re about to do is set aside $25 million for the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program to reward people who call out suspected fraud in the use of federal government dollars and programs.
These brave souls (coughLOLcough) will get up to $30,000 if they submit a tip that leads to a fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action.
The first part is … sort of normal. The federal government has always had what is known as a qui tam proceeding. That’s where a whistleblower files a claim under the False Claims Act and sues the wrongdoer on the government’s behalf, and the government can choose to intervene and join the action.
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These whistleblowers typically need to have some specialized knowledge or have worked for the entity being sued. This happens in healthcare fraud, for example, where someone within a company discovers that providers routinely and fraudulently overbill Medicaid or that the company gives kickbacks to doctors.
This all happens in secret at first, and a whistleblower has to put their skin in the game by filing a complaint in federal court under seal. Then, the government gets time to investigate in secret and decide whether to intervene. If the government decides not to, the whistleblower can go forward on their own. If the government does intervene, it litigates the case.
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Health care entities may be able to pay less than half the steep fines ordinarily associated with False Claims Act (FCA) violations by voluntarily reporting issues under a new pilot program launche...