Oftentimes, employees do not file qui tam actions against large healthcare entities because they believe they need mounds of evidence. In the False Claims Act arena, however, quality evidence trumps quantity evidence every time.

For example, employees may not have access to certain types of email outside of their location or department. However, these employees might still have sufficient evidence to reach back up the corporate ladder and point culpability to management levels of the company.

For instance, according to her qui tam complaint against her former employer Dialysis Corporation of America (DCA), successful relator Laura Davis had day-to-day knowledge of alleged fraud taking place at one particular DCA facility where she was employed as a nurse. To support her qui tam Complaint allegation that similar problems were taking place at all 35 DCA facilities, Ms. Davis provided company policies and protocols that allegedly directed centers to, in effect, overbill government healthcare programs.

There are dozens of other examples, where mid-level employee-relators have used corporate documents and communications to successfully evidence business-plan frauds. Accordingly, potential whistleblowers at every level of the corporate org chart should be mindful of any directives that flow down from corporate headquarters, for such material could become Exhibit #1 in a successful qui tam action. The “e” in e-mail may indeed stand  for quality “evidence” of Medicare fraud.

More information for whistleblowers is located at the Nolan Auerbach & White website.