Smart System Can Help

Whistleblowers are made, not born. When home care company personnel are treated with respect and appropriately kept in the loop, they will almost always resist the temptation, born of frustration, to become whistleblowers. Smart companies establish internal reporting systems that further this goal. Here are four suggestions for a smart reporting system.

First, train all supervisors to be sensitive to employee concerns. Publicizing your company's commitment to the compliance program with high-level endorsements is important, but it is equally important to ensure that all supervisors share that vision. Employees often share their concerns with their immediate supervisors rather than using a hotline or reporting to the compliance officer. If upper management encourages reporting problems, but a supervisor three levels down ignores the matter, a frustrated employee may bring his concern to court.

The best way to address this problem is to train supervisors and managers to listen carefully and sympathetically to employee concerns. If you take your employees seriously, listen to them and follow through on their concerns, you will have a much better chance of avoiding qui tam actions.

Second, offer feedback to employees who voice concerns. Let the employee know that you are taking action on his problem. The employee should be offered an opportunity to check on the status of the inquiry. For example, callers to a hotline might be given a number assigned to their complaint so they can monitor the case.

Third, develop a secure document control and retention policy. Qui tam plaintiffs must submit any information they have that supports the allegations of wrongdoing in their complaint to the government, and they often accomplish this by taking records from their workplace. A secure document control and retention policy can help keep sensitive information from winding up on the desk of a U. S. Attorney. (This is also important for HIPAA privacy compliance.)

Fourth, consider hiring an ethics consultant to assist with your compliance program. Compliance officers can run into trouble if they publicize a level of commitment that is not true throughout their company.