Participating in the signing ceremony with Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue were (shown above from left to right) Carrie Downing, Director of Legislative and External Affairs of the Georgia Department of Community Health; Dr. Rhonda Medows, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health; Inspector General Doug Colburn; Governor Perdue; Rep. Edward Lindsey, sponsor of the State False Medicaid Claims Act; whistleblower lawyer blog author Michael A. Sullivan of Finch McCranie, LLP; and Philip Consuegra, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Lindsey.
Our firm was asked by legislators to help write one of the nation’s newest whistleblower laws, the State False Medicaid Claims Act in Georgia. After recommending changes to the law, one of our partners Michael A. Sullivan was the only private attorney asked by legislators to testify to explain how the False Claims Act works, and how this new law would operate. The law was enacted.
The new whistleblower law protects the State's Medicaid funds by creating liability for "treble damages" (actual losses multiplied by three), and penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 for each false claim submitted to obtain payment by the State Medicaid Program. It also encourages private citizens who know of fraud in health care to file qui tam whistleblower cases, by permitting the whistleblower to share in up to 30% of the State's recovery of money.
We have published a great deal of information about the False Claims Act and the wave of new state False Claims Acts on our blog, and we invite you to visit it by clicking here.
