Remarkably, the government actually has a program where it earns a return of investment of over 500 percent (500%). It’s the whistleblower reward program. So far, the Department of Justice has paid out $3 billion in whistleblower rewards (yes, three billion dollars!). But in return, the government has recovered $20 billion in funds back from companies had defrauded the government. In business terms, that is a return of investment of over 500 percent. Compare that to an investment you might make in the stock market and hope for a 10 percent return on investment.
Medicare fraud and military fraud are on the rise and is hurting our economy and even our healthcare. Fortunately, Congress did something right for a change, and instituted the most efficient government program that not only stomps out fraud but earns a rate of return that is simply phenomenal.
The federal False Claims Act pays whistleblowers a reward of between 15 and 25 percent of what the government collects based on your report of Medicare fraud or military fraud (or for that matter, fraud against any of the more than 20 government programs). Although it may seem counter-productive to pay big rewards, it works—and it works remarkably well.
Here’s how paying rewards for reporting fraud against the government makes not only sense, but dollars and cents. For every dollar a whistleblower helps recover, the whistleblower gets about 20 percent. For instance, if you report $10 million in Medicare fraud committed by the hospital you work for, you get a reward of $2 million. By pocketing the $8 million the government would not have otherwise received, it earns a 500% return on investment.
To keep whistleblowers stepping forward, the average reward paid is $1 million, and the largest rewards in a single case have exceeded $100 million. The reward programs is so efficient that whistleblowers claiming rewards are now responsible for reporting 70 percent of all new cases of fraud against the government.
In these economic times, we all should applaud whistleblowers for having the courage to stand up and report fraud against the government. We should also applaud Congress for having the sense enough to keep alive this remarkable whistleblower reward program that earns a 500% return on investment.
Because one out of ten companies cheat the government, it’s time for you to get involved.
If you’re not in a position to detect and report fraud against the government, share this blog and website that outlines the whistleblower reward program in detail. If 100% of people knew of this whistleblower reward program, companies would be too afraid to keep cheating the government. Now that’s another statistic we can get excited about!