STATEMENT: TAF Coalition Statement on Zafirov Holding
Washington, DC – Yesterday, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in the Middle District of Florida held the False Claims Act’s whistleblower provisions violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
“This holding is an outlier breaking with years of precedent, including the decisions of every appellate court that has considered this question,” said Jacklyn DeMar, President & CEO of The Anti-Fraud Coalition. “The court ignored and mischaracterized precedent and fundamentally misconceived the role of a qui tam whistleblower, who is simply a private person who sees fraud and steps up to help the government redress it.”
Since 1986, False Claims Act whistleblower cases account for nearly $53 billion of the $75 billion recovered under the law. Whistleblowers are crucial to the government’s fraud fighting efforts and this public-private partnership has been a successful part of American jurisprudence and civil enforcement since the Civil War.
“The success of the False Claims Act shows it is achieving exactly what was intended when President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law, consistent with the tradition of whistleblowing celebrated since this nation’s founding,” added DeMar.
In this case, Dr. Clarissa Zafirov is carrying on the whistleblower tradition, alleging her employer falsely increased the risk adjustment scores of thousands of Medicare Advantage patients for the purpose of obtaining more funding from the government than was rightly owed.
For more information on this topic, please contact James King, Director of Communications & Digital at [email protected].
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