Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, today made the following comment on the award of $8.1 million under the False Claims Act to the two whistleblowers who brought the complaint alleging unnecessary cardiac surgeries at the Tenet Healthcare Corporation's Redding Medical Center in Redding, Calif. Grassley was the Senate author of the 1986 qui tam whistleblower amendments to the False Claims Act. Enforcement of the False Claims Act and its whistleblower provisions has returned more than $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury since 1986.
"Throughout my career, through a lot of oversight investigations, whistleblowers have been the key. The False Claims Act continues to work in many important ways. Unfortunately, there are too many corporate officers and directors who place profits ahead of patient care. Fortunately, there are still courageous whistleblowers who care enough to expend their time, energy and resources, often at great personal cost to themselves, to see that the right thing gets done. Without the whistleblowers in this case, the public might never have heard the very serious charges of widespread, unnecessary cardiac surgery at Tenet's Redding Medical Center. I hope this case will encourage other potential whistleblowers across the country to perform a public service and come forward about the fraud and abuse they're in a unique position to see."