Device Companies Urge Whistleblowers To Air Complaints In-House

Full article reprinted from "The Gray Sheet" - June 15, 2009

Device companies are trying to encourage employees to report suspected fraud internally rather than going straight to government authorities - with limited success to date. Read more...

Device Companies Urge Whistleblowers To Air Complaints In-House

Full article reprinted from "The Gray Sheet" - June 15, 2009

"It's one of the most important things, to encourage that internal process first," said Kathleen Lundberg, chief compliance officer at Boston Scientific, at an industry meeting in Europe last month.

Many government investigations into violations of the anti-fraud False Claims Act are initiated by current or former employees. But according to recent reports, 70% of those whistleblowers had never reported the problems internally before filing a complaint with the government.

"Companies I know have spent a lot of money over the last number of years in terms of compliance programs, sending out messages to their organization that they want to learn about failures in their systems," said former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Michael Sullivan at the Medical Device Manufacturers Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C., June 3.

"We have to do a lot more work in terms of encouraging employees that they really should be turning to employers," said Sullivan, now a partner with the Boston-based law firm Ashcroft Sullivan.

Employees may be reluctant to blow the whistle in-house for fear of recrimination, but others are just not aware that companies have processes in place for reporting suspected wrongdoing, Sullivan said in an interview.

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