The Employment Law Group® Law Firm is Quoted in BNA Article on New Health Care Reform Law

Principal Jason Zuckerman of The Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in an article in BNA’s Daily Labor Report titled “Health Care Law Has Whistleblower, Other Employee-Friendly Amendments,” about the whistleblower provisions of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009.  The article was published on April 13, 2010.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which we blogged about here, contains several new protections for employees.  Two of the most notable are section 1558 which creates a new private right of action for whistleblowers and section 10104(j)(2) which amends the False Claims Act.

Section 1558 creates a new right of action based on the procedures of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2087(b).   It protects anyone who discloses information that they reasonably believe evidences a violation of Title I of the Act.  Title I contains numerous provisions regulating health insurance and prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee for receiving health insurance subsidies.  Distinguishing this new law from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Zuckerman noted that the new whistleblower provision “is even more robust than that of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act because [unlike SOX] it contains an explicit right to a jury trial.”  Zuckerman also pointed out that section 1558 appears to apply to employers regardless of their size. 

Section 10104(j)(2) expands the definition of an “original source” under the False Claims Act, limiting the application of the FCA’s public disclosure bar and increasing the likelihood that a relator will be able to meet the original source exception.  According to Zuckerman “[t]his will make it much easier for qui tam relators to show that they are an original source and allow many more to survive motions to dismiss.”

For more information about The Employment Law Group® law firm’s Whistleblower Retaliation Practice, click here.

Tagged: P.C., The Employment Law Group, P.C., Whistleblower Laws (Federal)