A recent survey of healthcare industry executives by Littler Mendelson, a labor and employment law firm, revealed the vast majority of executives are concerned about the government's continued focus on prosecuting healthcare fraud, and executives are taking a number of steps to address that concern.
Ninety-four percent of the executives surveyed said they are moderately or very concerned about the increased prosecution of healthcare fraud and on the government utilizing whistle-blowers as a tool to identify misconduct.
Many of the executives had justification for their concern, as 58 percent of those surveyed said they have either experienced a slight (42 percent) or significant (16 percent) increase in the number of whistle-blower claims brought against their organization over the past two years.
The vast majority of the executives are taking action to address the increase in regulatory scrutiny. To encourage employees to report potential misconduct internally, rather than to the government or a plaintiff's lawyer, 95 percent of the executives have developed, updated and/or strengthened internal whistle-blower or compliance programs. To encourage internal reporting, many of the executives reported their organizations have held training sessions for managers (42 percent) or for employees (47 percent) on the topic. In addition, 68 percent of the executives have improved anonymous reporting procedures to help cut down on the number of whistle-blower lawsuits.
The results were based on a flash survey of 20 executives who attended a summit for senior level legal and business executives in the healthcare industry.
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