Can Whistleblowers Root Out Public Expenditure Fraud? Evidence from Medicare
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19318969 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jetson Leder-Luis (Boston University and NBER, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1169-1186 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Review of Economics and Statistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-6535 • E-ISSN: 1530-9142 |
| Publisher | MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1162/rest_a_01339 |
| PMID | 40995601 |
| OpenAlex | W4378979112 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
This paper analyzes private antifraud enforcement under the False Claims Act, which compensates whistleblowers for litigating against health care providers who overbill the US government. I conduct several case studies of successful whistleblower lawsuits concerning Medicare fraud, pairing new legal data with large samples of Medicare claims. I estimate that deterrence from $1.9 billion in whistleblower settlements generated Medicare cost savings of nearly $19 billion, while imposing low costs on the government. These results suggest private enforcement is a cost-effective way to combat public expenditure fraud
Actuarial science · Business · Deterrence theory · Economics · Enforcement · False Claims Act · Government (linguistics) · Health care · Political science · Public economics · Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance · Corruption and Economic Development · Ethics in Business and Education · Law
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |