Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, on June 25, 2002, wrote to the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services expressing concern over whether the government is softening its approach to prosecuting health care kickback and bribery cases under the False Claims Act. Grassley is the Senate author of the 1986 whistle blower amendments to the False Claims Act. He asked a series of detailed questions. He received agency responses on July 23. Grassley made the following comment on the responses.
“I’m disappointed by these responses. I didn’t get most of the information I requested. This is a very serious issue, and I intend to keep working on it until I’m satisfied that the government isn’t weakening its enforcement of anti-kickback statutes. During a hearing two weeks ago, Attorney General Ashcroft promised me a complete response. I look forward to receiving that. I also plan to write a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services to ask for a complete response from that agency, too."
