Physician Payment Sunshine Act: Will Sunshine Data Help Qui Tam Whistleblowers and Their Attorneys?

While the pharmaceutical industry scrambles to gather spend data for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, one issue in particular keeps companies up at night: come September 31, qui tam attorneys will have an easily searchable database to support any False Claims Act claim they decide to make. As part of Washington D.C.'s National Disclosure Summit, Lesley Ann Skillen, partner of Getnick & Getnick LLP's False Claim Act qui tam practice, spoke about whether Sunshine data will provide a boost to whistleblowers. She argued that the Sunshine Act may actually hamper qui tam cases more than it helps. The False Claims Act (FCA) creates a civil cause of action against anyone who submits a claim to the federal government that he or she knows is false. For example, under the FCA, the government could seek three times the amount of damages of each fraudulent Medicare claim. The FCA allows either the government or a private citizen in the name of the government to bring an action. Whistleblowers, or qui tam relators, are entitled to receive 15-30% of the proceeds. Skillen noted that of the $12 billion recovered in healthcare FCA cases in the last five years, nearly $11 billion came from qui tam cases - See more at: http://www.policymed.com/2014/02/physician-payment-sunshine-act-will-sunshine-data-help-qui-tam-whistleblowers-and-their-attorneys.html#sthash.X8Rot2wV.dpuf