...HILLSONG - "BORN IS THE KING (IT'S CHRISTMAS)" Born unto us this day a Saviour Gifted from heaven to a manger The hope of the world A light for all mankind All of the earth rejoice It's Christmas time So lift up your voice and sing out His praise It's Christmas Born is the King, rejoice in the day It's Christmas Make a joyful sound It's Christmas Let His praise resound It's Christmas Goodwill to all the earth And peace divine All of the earth rejoice It's Christmas time It's Christmas time So lift up your voice and sing out His praise It's Christmas Born is the King, rejoice in the day It's Christmas Make a joyful sound It's Christmas Let His praise resound It's Christmas So lift up your voice and sing out His praise It's Christmas Born is the King, rejoice in the day It's Christmas Make a joyful sound It's Christmas Let His praise resound It's Christmas So lift up your voice and sing out His praise It's Christmas Born is the King, rejoice in the day It's Christmas Make a joyful sound It's Christmas Let His praise resound It's Christmas 1 DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY I have loved you only in my mind But I know that there will come a time You'll feel this feeling I have inside You're a 'hopeless romantic' is what they say Falling in and out of love just like a play Memorizing each line I still don't know what to say What to say... Refrain: Don't know what to do whenever you are near ...
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...Major Laws Concerning Fraud and Abuse Anna Afoakwa Health Information- Law and Ethics (Summer Quarter) Author Note: This assignment is being submitted as module 9 assignment Healthcare ethical behavior is an important topic in health industry. Ethics or moral behavior is the ground on which humanity stands for a compatible existence. The word ‘ethics’ means different to different people and is based on moral, philosophic and religious principles of the society in which it is practiced. All problems of life have solutions, but all solutions are not based on moral principles. Principles alone do not lead to ethical decisions; decisions without principles are ethically empty. Below are the seven major laws concerning fraud and abuse. The False Claims Act: imposes liability upon any person who knowingly submits or causes the submission of false or fraudulent claims for payment or approval. In the healthcare context, examples of conduct that can arguably lead to charges of violations of the statute include, but are not limited to: billing for medical services not rendered; misrepresenting the level of services rendered; falsely certifying compliance with federal laws; and submitting a claim for payment that is contrary to Medicare or Medicaid payment requirements. The Federal Anti-Kickback Statute: prohibits providers of services or goods covered by a federal healthcare program ("Federal Healthcare Program") from knowingly and willingly soliciting or receiving or providing...
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...Is it worth blowing the whistle? Ethics, values and beliefs all play a role in accounting. But when it comes being a whistleblower you can see where these things can start to conflict with one another. Even though there are laws to protect a whistle blower very few people do and those who do blow the whistle aren’t always happy after it’s done. At the same time those who do report do receive benefits and can say they truly have honesty and integrity. Ethics is more than just what’s right and wrong. What is right to one person can be considered wrong to another. Ethics are based off of what we know to be morally right or wrong. Smoking marijuana is wrong in the United States but considered ordinary or right in Amsterdam. Some ethical decisions go further than knowing what is the right thing to do, sometimes our emotions can get the best of us and leave us making poor decisions. When deciding the ethical thing to do in a situation you must set your emotions aside and base your decision on what you know or consider being right. Ethics is a large part of accounting. You are constantly faced with decisions where you need to decide the ethical thing to do. Whistleblowing involves the act of reporting wrongdoing within an organization to internal or external parties (Eaton & Akers, 2007).As a whistleblower your ethical decisions are what decide if you should blow the whistle. You know that adjusting numbers such as Enron did is wrong and unethical. Many people are afraid...
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...Numerous economists and financial experts have labeled the financial crisis of 2008-2009, The Great Recession. Individuals and corporations alike were deeply affected by The Great Recession; either by losing their jobs or by the sudden stock sell off that occurred between 2008 and 2009. There was no question that something had to be done to prevent history from repeating itself. The only question was what to do. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010, was the proposed answer. The act was the work of Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The purpose of the legislation is “to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end “too big to fail,” to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes” (The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, 2012). While the law officially made it easier for whistleblowers to alert authorities to fraud, the law itself can be seen as unprogressive, rather than progressive, or forward thinking. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, fraud can cost an average company five percent of their annual revenues, which makes the detection...
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...SNITCHING FOR RICHES: WHISTLEBLOWER BOUNTIES AND THE $96 MILLION CHERYL ECKARD SETTLEMENT Introduction Bounties have been employed by United States government over the history of our Nation. As differentiated from rewards, which offer payment for accomplishment of a specific act such as providing information that leads to the capture of a particular criminal, bounties are tailored to encourage the services or actions by some class of persons in pursuance of a governmental purpose. One of the earliest examples in the United States is the grant of bounty land grants during both the Revolutionary War and Civil War. For the purpose of encouraging longer military service, this bounty system would offer land to men fit for service in return for some specified number of years of military service. Although arguably not a major factor in the United State victory in both wars, this bounty system accomplished its purpose as evidenced by the United States enticing enough men into ranks of military service to further its war campaign. Today, a common use of bounties is as an incentive for a class of persons, commonly referred to as whistleblowers, with knowledge of misconduct on the part of private or public organization to report that misconduct which is in violation of the law or against the public interest. The government encourages whistleblowing through the use of bounties and anti-retaliation laws that make up a scheme for whistleblower protection. Whistleblowers face many obstacles...
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...Whistleblowing: The Right Choice Whistleblowing has become a contentious issue in both the public and private sectors. Whistleblowers are often regarded in derogatory terms. However, they should not be viewed in this manner. They are the average employee who does this out of loyalty. Many are retaliated against, and this forces the whistleblower to seek protections. Despite the negativity and retaliation, whistleblowing is the right decision because it exposes the wrongdoing of the employer. A whistleblower is a “person who reveals to a government agency or news media, confidential information of wrongdoing or conduct he or she regards as unethical”. They are referred to in derogatory terms such as “rat”, “stool-pigeon”, “snitch”, “fink”, and even called disloyal (Liuzzo, 2012, pg 28). But those terms do a disservice to the employee who wants to fix a problem or help the organization. Whistleblowers are none of those labels. Some are considered “citizen crime fighters” or “ethical resisters” who put their careers and lives in jeopardy for the safety of the public (Westman, 1991, pg vii) whose motivation stems from a deep ethical responsibility and loyalty. Any person who decides to speak out understands they have a responsibility not only to the public, but to the company, and to their co-workers. These must be considered in order to determine if whistleblowing is the right course of action. The whistleblower is motivated by whether the perceived...
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...Business Assignment #2 Big Business Launches a New Attack on Whistle-Blowers By Paul M. Barrett In the article Big Business Launches a New Attack on Whistle-Blowers written By Paul M. Barrett and posted this week online on www.businessweek.com, Corporations are accusing whistleblowers of taking advantage of misguided and out dated Acts while the government stands behind the Acts put in place and hope to help those who willing come forward believing it is their duty to protect those who speak out to protect from waste and government fraud. I chose to write on this article because it covers a few topics we have covered in our class including whistleblowing, ethics, big business, Acts put in place to protect businesses, employees as well as the government. Some corporations believing that some leeway should be presented for those who are found guilty of only slight oversights in their companies. The article states that Corporations are not fond of the False Claims Act (FCA). Defense contractors, drug makers, health-care providers, and others say that whistle-blowers are abusing an old federal law meant to deter fraud against the government. A Republican senator however, defends the statute as a “shield against corporate rip-offs. The FCA will allow individuals to sue companies doing business with the government as a deterrent to fraud. If this suit succeeds, the individual may keep a portion of the recovery. In a small percentage of cases, the Justice Department...
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...Competency 3006.1.5: Legal and Regulatory Requirements Overview Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (passed in the wake of the 2008–2009 financial crisis), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will pay 10 to 30% of the amount the government recovers from financial fraud if the whistleblower provides original information leading to a recovery of more than a million dollars. False Claims Act * Recent legislation has made it easier and potentially more lucrative for employees to blow the whistle to regulators when companies are government contractors or when the federal government has somehow been defrauded. * Whistleblowers who report corporate wrongdoing against the government to prosecutors can be awarded 15 to 30% of whatever damages the federal government recovers, which are to be three times the damages the government has sustained. * Since the government has recovered billions of dollars since the law’s inception, this has become a powerful incentive for some employees to tell all to prosecutors. Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) * Passed in 2002, this act provides whistleblowers in publicly traded companies with revolutionary new protections if they “make a disclosure to a supervisor, law-enforcement agency, or congressional investigator that could have a ‘material impact’ on the value of a company’s shares.” * Under the law, board committees must set up...
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...The False Claims Act The False Claims Act, enacted by Congress in 1863 to protect the Union troops from profiteers providing shoddy goods and rotten food during the Civil War, prompted Abraham Lincoln's drive to empower private citizens with the ability to file suit on behalf of the government against corrupt contractors. The act was revitalized in 1986 to combat fraud in the defense contracting industry. Today, the False Claims Act is the government's principal weapon in the prosecution of health care fraud. One may be held either civilly or criminally responsible for knowingly or recklessly submitting a fraudulent claim to the government. The statute permits private citizens, or relators, to file a civil action against any entity or individual violating its provisions. Violators are subject to treble damages plus civil fines of not less than $5,500 but not more than $11,000 per claim. Under the criminal statute, false claims are punishable by fine or imprisonment of up to five years, or both, for knowingly submitting a false statement for reimbursement. To prevail under the False Claims Act, the government or its relator must establish that: the defendant presented or caused to be presented a claim to the government for payment or approval; the claim was false or fraudulent; and the defendant knew that the claim was false or fraudulent. "Knowing" means actual knowledge of false information, or acts in deliberate ignorance or reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the...
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...The Whistleblowing Case Studies There are various cases about whistleblowing, one of them is the case of Motorola CFO, Paul Liska.1 He has been fired after giving a presentation. In the presentation, Liska pointed out to Motorola directors that the cell phone unit, Mobile Devices, missed its sales projection for the preceding three months. Liska intended to attack Sanjay Jha, the head of Motorola’s cell phone division, by doing the presentation at the board meeting. The whistleblowing occurred because Liska and Jha did not get along well, and Liska tried to save the situation with an attack on Jha. Liska objected to Jha’s hiring, his compensation package and the co-CEO agreement. Liska’s behavior markedly deteriorated after Jha’s hiring, implying that he was unhappy to be outranked by the new co-CEO. The reason behind Liska’s inflammatory presentation is a matter of contention. Liska says he was trying to fulfill his duty to the company by raising a red flag about the cellphone unit’s projections. Motorola says Liska knew he was on his way out, and he tried to extort the company by setting himself up as a whistle-blower who was being fired for speaking out. Another famous whistleblowing case is the case of WikiLeaks.2 WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization which aims to publish online submissions of classified information, news leaks 3 from anonymous news sources and whistleblowers.4 It unleashed the wrath of the U.S. government and a wave of recrimination and...
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...have become endless opportunities for fraud or deceptive practices. The government enacted the False Claims Act for help in controlling the deceptive practices and additionally giving them a viable tool to expose the fraudulent acts. The False Claims Act allows a whistleblower or “qui tam” to come forward and help aide the government with the massive ongoing fraud that is enacted everyday against the government. A much needed provision that helps ‘seal’ and protects the whistleblowers identity was added into the FCA. The protection by sealing the name when a claim is enacted by a whistleblower is important because it allows the whistleblower to help the government with the pursuit of fraud while protecting the whistleblower from backlash from their employee or organization. There are many organizations within the Government that spend an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars. From within these organizations fraud and deceptive practices are found, and sometimes are a regular practice in everyday expenditures. The Government cannot stop or find all of the illegal practices going on within, but for the ones that can be identified there is the False Claims Act (FCA) for a whistleblower or “qui tam” to come forward and report the deception. The whistleblower under the FCA has been vital and important for the government in recouping and uncovering massive taxpayer dollars that have been lost. One of the main concerns throughout the years has been the protection of the identity...
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...claims • Contain provisions that are at least as effective in rewarding and facilitating qui tam actions for false or fraudulent claims as described in the FCA • You must contain a requirement for filling an action under seal for 60 days • Finally you must contain a civil penalty that is not less than the amount of the civil penalty (State False Claim Act Reviews, 2014). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was designed to protect patient privacy. The three objectives that HIPAA was designed to accomplish are: • Determine the circumstances in which protected patient health information is used and disclosed • Establish individual rights in regards to protected information • Ensure that administrative safeguards are adopted to ensure the privacy of patient information Stark law forbids a physician from making certain referrals for certain designated health service (Physician Self Referral, 2014). Ten specific DHS services are as follows: • Clinical laboratory services • Physical Therapy services • Occupational Therapy services • Home health Services • Outpatient prescription drugs • Durable medical equipment • Outpatient speech language pathology services • Radiology • Prenatal and eternal nutrients • Inpatient outpatient hospital services According to Phillips and Cohen Qui Tam is a lawsuit whistleblowers bring under the false claims act (Qui Tam Explained, 2014). This law rewards whistleblowers if their Qui...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Bianca Martin LEG 500 Law, Ethics & Corp. Governance Strayer University Professor: Keith S. Smith Whistleblowing Whistleblowing has come to describe a wide range of disclosures, both within organizations and outside organizations (Trevino, 2015). Whistleblowing empowers workers to speak up for principles and ethics and shine a light on unethical practices that can cause negative consequences for consumers, citizens and colleagues. Internal whistle blowing can be very valuable for an organization; reports of misconduct, given early and taken seriously, can prevent disaster (Trevino, 2015). Alternately, public whistle blowing has collapsed and shamed many organizations. Research suggests that it’s usually very difficult to report wrongdoing in organizations (Trevino, 2015). Among the main reasons people fail to report are fear of retaliation for reporting, and the belief that nothing will be done. Equally, those who do report say that they did so because they felt supported by managers and coworkers, they believed something would be done, and they were able to report anonymously (Trevino, 2015). For those who do report, most people prefer to handle issues within the organization before venturing outside, and most will go to their direct supervisor first (Trevino, 2015). Recently, protection for certain types of whistleblowing has increased with legislation such as the U.S. False Claims Act, Sarbanes-Oxley and the creation of the...
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...Week 3 Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Shirmere N. Gardner Dr. Susan Gerber LEG 500: Law, Ethics & Corporate Governance January 25, 2015 Abstract This text will examine the key characteristics of a whistleblower, as well as the details surrounding the JPMorgan whistleblowing event. The extent to which whistleblowers are protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) will also be elaborated. Key Characteristics of a Whistleblower Whistleblowers are individuals who choose to report unethical and illegal activities. Some may work for various organizations such as non-profits and government agencies. Whistleblowing empowers employees to adhere to ethical principles and speak up for things taking place that are unethical, which may affect consumers, citizens or other employees. Such information may be disclosed to company officials, government authorities, and the media. Some of the key characteristics of a whistleblower are that they are altruistically motivated, utilitarian, uninterested in altering their behavior and they allow their own attitudes and beliefs to guide them. Most whistleblowers are often well-educated and hold professional positions (Wines, 2005). JP Morgan Whistleblower According to a Reuters article a JPMorgan whistleblower was compensated $63.9 million in a mortgage fraud deal. “Keith Edwards, a Louisiana resident, had worked for JP Morgan or its predecessors from 2003 to 2008, and had been an...
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...Whistleblowing LEG 500 Whistleblowing in a Publicly Traded Company Whistleblowing implies the imperative necessity to alert others (company) about immorality issues, including illegal activity, happening inside the organization. For the employee who decides to blow the whistle “usually brings to he/she undesirable consequences.” Some consequences are like threats, loss of employment, and social rejection. (Chiu,R. 2003) Whistleblower Traits Whistleblowers are characterized by strong ethic-moral values. They are perceived as an active person with enough courage to expose the wrongdoing occurring inside their company. They are “perceived as altruistically driven individuals who are steered by their attitudes.” The whistleblower is characterized by being an altruistically motivated person, perfectionist, professionally well educated, self-driven attitudes, conscious invariant behavior, and functional utilitarian. They are competent and professionals. Usually, the whistleblower act in good faith and they think they act for the best of the company. They have access to relevant information from the business that allows them to be aware of unlawful situations. Having this position in the business makes the easy to share information with the superiors or in another scenario to the authorities. A publicly traded company affected by whistleblowing is Rabanxy Inc. (NSE: Ranbaxy) Ranbaxy is an Indian Multinational pharmaceutical company that was producing generics drug...
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