Milwaukee Employment Law Blog

The federal government has vast resources, but detecting fraud in programs and contracts is no easy task in the normal course of business. The False Claims Act (which was initially enacted during the President Lincoln years) allows private individuals to file a lawsuit on behalf of the government to expose fraud and recover unlawfully obtained taxpayer money. Whistleblowers receive a percentage of any verdict or settlement that arises from the lawsuit.

Businesses in a wide variety of industries engage in transactions that are tied to government contracts or government programs. The housing market is a vital part of the American dream. Most people in Wisconsin are aware of the meltdown in the housing market in 2008. The Federal Housing Administration backs many mortgage loans across the nation - that backing is funded through taxpayer dollars. Fraud in the mortgage industry harms homeowners and taxpayers alike.

When someone is in a serious accident and needs to be flown to a Milwaukee hospital by air ambulance, it's likely that one of the last things on their mind is whether the aircraft is sound or not. But medical aircraft are like all other planes and helicopters: they need to be regularly maintained and inspected to ensure safety.

Yet an Alaska company eager to hide safety issues with its aircraft fired a pilot who reported the problems to the Federal Aviation Administration. A federal judge recently awarded the Anchorage man about $750,000 in his employment law claim.

Surrounded by mountains and forest, Kalispell, Montana, is the gateway to one of the nation’s natural wonders: Glacier National Park. The beautiful scenery is a backdrop to an ugly scandal focused on the 138-bed hospital that takes its name from the town. The medical center has been roiled by charges that physicians there took illegal kickbacks and defrauded the federal government.

Kalispell Regional Healthcare recently agreed to pay $24 million to settle the whistleblower lawsuit that blew the lid off of the scheme. According a news source, it’s the largest False Claims Act recovery in Montana’s history.

There is a difference in how government health care programs reimburse health care providers for Medicare Part A services as compared to Part B and Part D Medicare services. Some commentators believe that the different arrangements tempt some health care providers to create schemes to increase profits through reimbursement.A whistleblower says that he noticed a billing discrepancy in the way a Kentucky-based pharmacy company that serves nursing homes negotiated its prices under Part A when dealing with nursing home facilities. He initiated a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that the institutional pharmacy service provider used a scheme, commonly referred to as “swapping,” to defraud Medicare.