Jim,

I have worked in direct patient care for close to thirty years. The compliance BS that goes on today, makes a person start to rethink a new career path.

Having ten years of CNP experience under your belt is a huge asset to many clinics and hospitals. The jobs will darn near come looking for you!

As everyone else here stated "take the severance and run", do it would be my choice.

The feds cannot guarantee anonymity. We would all love to see fraud investigated but the OP’s obligation is to himself and his family. I say this having seen the dark side of whistleblowing after 40 years of military and government service.

If the OP is identified no good can come out of this. If an investigation begins after the OP departs the practice and he’s the only one who has left all fingers will still point to him. Suspicions will follow him and plague him.

Just do the right thing. It does not need to be complicated.

Honestly, this is a math problem.

How much money do you have available to take care of your family if you get into a long, drawn out legal fight / blackballed? If the answer is anything less than a year, there is no question.

Take the money and run, then maybe look to re-address the issue after you are gainfully employed for a couple of months at a new job, after consulting legal counsel.

Or fall on your sword trying to do the 'right' thing and enjoy being impaled, maybe losing your house, family, you name it. Sure, you could come out smelling like a rose, with fat stacks of settlement money and the Feds throwing tickertape parades for you. But then again, when was they last time that happened?

quote:

Originally posted by PD:
If someone thinks becoming a whistleblowing martyr is some noble righteous calling you’ve been watching too many movies.

It's not a question of it being some "noble, righteous calling," but a desire to see an injustice corrected.

The day average Joe and Jane Doe cease caring about seeing injustices corrected is the day we, as a society, become doomed.

I cannot recommend the path I took, it was hard.

Similar circumstances and I took it very seriously that my former employer was trying to destroy my reputation and black ball me.

I fought them, most of the senior leadership was fired or removed, my boss was fired as the scapegoat and his boss who was the true instigator was transferred.

Nothing happened to union leadership of course because national didn't care to remove corruption. They were the real crooks in the situation as I had steped out from under them for my duties.

I will never be made whole, I got a bit of a severance pay, but no where near what would be considered just for what occurred.

Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move on, but I'm stubborn and hate to see bad guys win.

I wish you the best.


The entire plant closed down this year, jobs went to India and Mexico.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by PD:
If someone thinks becoming a whistleblowing martyr is some noble righteous calling you’ve been watching too many movies.

It's not a question of it being some "noble, righteous calling," but a desire to see an injustice corrected.

The day average Joe and Jane Doe cease caring about seeing injustices corrected is the day we, as a society, become doomed.

Sometimes what one person sees as "unjust" the other sees as someone who is just crazy, jealous or just plain wrong.

Plenty of examples: Climate Hoax etc.

Ok, then my suggestion is to consult an attorney first on options using a pseudonym that can reveal your identity if fraud can be proven if concerned about possible monetary rewards at the conclusion. Or just make an anonymous statement and let it go.

I’m not saying ignore it but the conditions of your severance package may contain a confidentiality clause that preclude you revealing any information. If you violate this agreement can you afford a frivolous lawsuit from them to silence you? They may have no chance of winning in the end but it will cost you emotionally and financially to defend yourself unless it is thrown out of court early on. I know someone who was hit with a no compete lawsuit. It accomplished what the plaintiff wanted, he is no longer working but remember too that I am only hearing one side of the story.

Sage advice here. Take the severance and roll out. You should have no problem finding employment and I'm sure it will be a lot better than what you're in.

Take the severance and run. Report them to the insurance companies, Medicaid, and Medicare for the fraud.

quote:

The day average Joe and Jane Doe cease caring about seeing injustices corrected is the day we, as a society, become doomed.

I think we reached this point some time ago.
There is no fixing it. Save yourself and go. I think most companies are run by corrupting the numbers

There are a bunch of good points to consider in the responses which I won't reiterate here. One additional consideration: My wife's friend spent 28 months in federal prison because the company she worked for was committing Medicare fraud and she (inadvertently, according to her but not the jury) signed some "erroneous" records. She very much regrets ignoring her suspicions rather than reporting them to the authorities.

Don't listen to the "I turn myself in for spitting on the sidewalk" crowd.

Take the money, get a new job, move on.

It is always important to assess your own culpablity for the actions of others. As others have pointed out this sort of thing can be done at a later date. There are certain areas that Medicare and Medicaid target for audits. Home health and nursing homes were at the top of the list at one time. Like the IRS they run computer audits of claims and compare your billing patterns to those of your peers. Lots of other methods as well.

Take the severance package and run, because the fight is not worth it. They probably have a lawyer on their payroll, you don't. As a Nurse Practicioner you should be able to find another job relatively easily. Find one at a place you like working at.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Why the heck would you fight to get that job back? Take the severance package and run. Then find a practice that makes you feel good to work at. Especially if the package is big enough to get you through enough time to land a better gig.

This! Life is too damned short to spend it fighting idiots, or losing sleep over shit you can not change.