Undercover

"In Undercover, John Schilling recounts his seven-year journey from loyal employee to federal informant and top witness for the Justice Department's case against Columbia/ HCA - the biggest and most formidable conglomerate in the healthcare business. It began in April 1994 with an intriguing question from a government auditor about a cost report for one of Columbia's facilities. As a professional who took his CPA code of ethics seriously, Schilling expected his boss to clear up what he assumed was an honest accounting error. Instead, the boss scheduled a conspiracy meeting. When his boss's boss urged diverting attention away from a mistake worth $3.5 million, Schilling faced a choice: Go along to get along or speak out and risk being fired, blackballed, and reviled. His courageous decision brought him more excitement, stress, turmoil, and money than he could have imagined. Schilling reveals how he used his sense of moral outrage and a little known law, the False Claims Act, to launch a federal investigation into Columbia/ HCA's systematic practice of ripping off Medicare and Medicaid." "In the end, Schilling's moral conviction resulted in the resignation of high-ranking executives and forced Columbia to return more than $1.7 billion to the federal government. It also raised public awareness of rampant cost-reporting violations and scams, increased healthcare industry compliance and vigilance, and made him a multimillionaire. The inspiring story of one man's willingness to risk everything for the right thing, Undercover will make you think about the motives and role of a whistleblower in a fresh, heroic light."--BOOK JACKET.