Whistleblowers and the False Claims Act 2012

Question: Describe about the Whistleblowers and the False Claims Act 2012 ? Answer: Key characteristics of whistleblower The whistleblowers are the range of employees present internally and externally in the organisation who takes the responsibility of reporting any misconduct of the supervisors to the other related parties. The number of whistleblowers is decreasing in the public sector organisations. Hence to increase the instances of whistleblowing and reduce the instances of fraudulent activities, the SEC has introduced the award payout system for the whistleblowers within the public sector (Welsh Bayliss, 2012). As per the reports of The Guardian, last year in April 2014, a heart specialist doctor serving at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry and a member of the NHS Trust, publicly aired his concerns about the lack of care and rising number of patient deaths in the hospitals. The Whistleblowing doctor expressed his concerns about the lack of post-operative care in NHS and Walsgrave and the concern over the patient safety and overcrowding of patient beds leading to death caused by congestion and breathing problems. As a result, of the Whistleblowing, the doctor was dismissed from NHS trust and hospital services (Campbell, 2014). However, as an effect of the whistleblowing, the Commission for Health Improvement and the NHS trust evaluated the existing operations in the hospitals and were bound to support the actions of the doctor. The allegations and dismissal of the hospital authorities against the doctor cost the hospital 6 million of the public fund (Meese, 2012). Justification of whistle blowing The analysis of the above case shows that the whistleblower was completely justified in his approach of highlighting the issues prevailing within the hospital premises. In the recent case of the reporting by the whistleblowing doctors, the hospital faced the death of two patients due to the lack of post-operative care and congestions of beds leading to inappropriate health conditions. In this case, the doctor was rightful in his approach to notifying the concerns publicly. As per the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act 2005, all hospitals should adopt care and maintain quality services in their conduct of treating the patients within the hospital premises. Kestenbaum, (2012) stated that whistleblowing is important in case of healthcare organisations because, the lack of whistleblowing within the healthcare will result in increased level of corruption that will finally result in the reduction of the dignity and health of the patients in the healthcare organisation. Thus, protec ting the patients from harm and ensuring the dignity of the care, an open and transparent culture should be maintained within the healthcare organisations. Protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which is commonly known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act sets out the legislations for the employees of the public limited companies who provide evidence of fraud to the public about the organisation. Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provides the legislations for the protection of the whistleblowers in the public limited companies. Section 1514A of the act further provides the legislations for the civil protection to the employees against their retaliations. The provisions of Section 1514A state that the publicly traded companies cannot dismiss suspend, harass, discharge or demote a whistleblower (Campbell, 2014). For being eligible under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002, the whistleblowers must fulfil the following conditions: The whistleblower should be an employee of a publicly traded company registered under the section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act 1934 The whistleblower must have complained about a senior employee within the organisation believing that a violation of any rule or regulation of the SEC has taken place (Lopez, 2013) The whistleblower can also complain about the grounds of any violation of federal and criminal provisions relating to banks, emails or wire fraud Sarbanes-Oxley Act specifies that whistleblower complaints should be legally made confidential and anonymous so that the company officials should not have any information about the employee who has complained about the supervisors and organisational policies. The incorporation of this legislation further helps the whistleblowers within the organisation to avoid any mistreatments from the employers. Further section 806 of the act states that if the whistleblower is mistreated within the organisation, then the employee may file a complaint with the Department of Labour within 90 days of the mistreatment. If the complaint of the employee against the mistreatment of the organisation becomes successful under the act, then the employee is entitled to receive monetary compensations, reinstatement and damage compensation from the management of the organisation. In the given case, a doctor is also entitled to receive monetary compensation from NHS trust funds for bullying and dismissing the d octor from his services (Azlin Farhat, 2012). References Azlin, K., Farhat, V. (2012).Whistleblowers and the False Claims Act 2012. New York, NY: Practising Law Institute. Campbell, D. (2014).Whistleblowing heart doctor who aired hospital safety fears wins tribunal case.the Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2015, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/17/legal-victory-heart-doctor-whistleblower-hospital-safety-fears Kestenbaum, N. (2012).Internal investigations, 2012. New York, NY: Practising Law Institute. Lopez, I. (2013).Dog Whistle Politics. Oxford University Press, USA. Meese, T. (2012). Blowing the whistle.Dental Nursing,8(3), 125-125. doi:10.12968/denn.2012.8.3.125 Mutigwe, E. (2013).An Ubuntu/Hunhu Appraisal of the Ethics of Whistle blowing. Saarbrucken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. Welsh, P., Bayliss, S. (2012). Whistle-blowing explained: to be or not to be a whistle-blower, that is the question.The Veterinary Nurse,3(2), 122-126. doi:10.12968/vetn.2012.3.2.122