John Slowik has become a wealthy man. The 53 year-old compliance officer for the Olympus Corporation finally had enough of his company’s shenanigans. Though he repeatedly complained to his management about the culture of bribes and kickbacks to doctors and hospital administrators, they turned a deaf ear to his complaints.
In an article for CNN Money by Chris Isidore entitled: “Whistleblower wins $51 million in kickback and bribery case:”
“A whistleblower will collect a $51 million payday after sounding the alarm about bribes and kickbacks at the medical device company where he worked. Olympus Corporation of the Americas agreed Tuesday to pay $646 million in fines after it admitting to a pattern of bribery and kickbacks.
About half of that fine was a criminal penalty for violating the federal anti-kickback statue, making it the largest amount ever paid for breaking that law. The payment to the whistleblower will be paid out of the company’s fines.”
The bribes were disguised as grants and research money, when they actually were used to buy influence in the form of gifts and vacations. When Slowik discovered the pattern of bribes and went to his management, management responded by saying that it was the real job of the compliance officer to find ways around the system! His complaints started in 2009 and by 2010 he was fired for trying to do the right thing.
Slowik understood that kickbacks and bribes “can improperly influence a provider’s judgment about a patient’s health care needs.” The company was able to sell healthcare providers inferior or over-priced equipment.
The Reward and the Risk
Whistleblowing is a lonely and painful road, and for the most part the employee who stands up for an ethical cause is ostracized and demeaned. Major companies have large legal staffs and in the case of Olympus they focused their efforts on dragging Mr. Slowik through the mud. He was fortunate. He had friends and family to support him in his efforts:
“I would also like to thank my family and friends who have stood by me and supported my efforts to do the right thing under difficult circumstances.”
Olympus was caught due to Slowik’s ethical efforts and the whistleblower received more than $50 million in compensation for blowing the whistle. So everyone should be “ethically” happy, right?
Not so fast – and this is why I support ethical training programs and refreshers throughout the healthcare system. You see friends, the Olympus Corporation paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. This means that physicians, equipment buyers at hospitals, purchasing agents, numerous department heads and the like, willingly accepted the bribes. Where are their penalties? Where are their consequences? I could make an argument that they are even more blameworthy than Olympus!
The bottom line is the bottom line. If you occasionally wonder why healthcare costs are so prohibitively high, you can point to situations such as these. However let’s all concede that it’s not about money at all, it is about ethics. Despite the money, not much has ethically changed since Hippocrates and all of his associates. At least do no harm, and bad ethics are still bad ethics.