So You Want to Blow the Whistle (Part 1): What Does It Mean to Be a Whistleblower?

This is the first entry in a six-part series on the process and practical realities of being a whistleblower and exposing fraud against the government.

Part 1: What Does It Mean to Be a Whistleblower?

“Whistleblower” is a popular term these days, though it means different things to different people. For some, the word has a negative connotation—they see whistleblowers as grown-up tattletales betraying the trust of friends and coworkers. For others, whistleblowers are heroes. Time Magazine, for example, named “the Whistleblowers” (more specifically, Cynthia Cooper of Worldcom, Coleen Rowley of the FBI, and Sherron Watkins of Enron) as its “Persons of the Year” for 2002, after they brought wrongdoing in their respective organizations to light.

Count us in the camp that believes whistleblowers deserve huge credit for their efforts. Whistleblowers take great personal risks to expose fraud and other illegal activities; as a result, America is a better and safer place. But that still leaves the question: what does it mean to actually be a whistleblower?

The short answer is that a whistleblower is someone who comes forward with information on improper conduct that someone else is trying to keep secret. Many different types of people meet this definition: a factory worker reporting on unsafe conditions, an investment banker reporting stock price manipulation, or a nurse exposing Medicare and Medicaid fraud. As a legal matter, however, the context is crucial, as there are various types of laws that protect different types of whistleblowers.

The whistleblowers this firm represents are typically those who have information about fraud against a state or federal government program. Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of whistleblowers as far back as 1863, when he and Congress enacted a law to reward individuals who shared information about unscrupulous contractors defrauding the U.S. Army. That law—the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”)—remains in effect today and remains the primary means by which the government recognizes and rewards citizen whistleblowers. Under the FCA, a whistleblower who provides information about fraud against the government can be entitled to anywhere from 15-30% of the money the government recovers. In 2024, the federal government paid over $400 million in rewards to whistleblowers, out of more than $2.4 billion in fraudulent payments recovered from whistleblower lawsuits.  

As in Lincoln’s day, fraud against the United States and its agencies remains rampant. Medicare, with its billions of dollars in annual payments to providers, facilities, vendors, and other contractors, is the government program hit hardest by fraud. Health care fraud accounted for more than half of the fraudulent funds recovered by the federal government in 2024, and many of the largest judgments and settlements in recent years have been against health care companies. Unfortunately, these recoveries are only a drop in the bucket as experts estimate that the Medicare and Medicaid programs collectively lose tens of billions of dollars per year to fraud.

In short, there are many types of whistleblowers and many different laws that potentially apply to them, so if you are thinking about blowing the whistle, the best thing you can do is to consult with an experienced attorney as soon as possible.

This is the first in a six-part series. In part two, we’ll go over what to do if you believe your employer is committing fraud.