Gathering Place Thomas Grande

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State needs to pursue
public/private partnership
in civil law enforcement

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One of the most important lessons we have learned during the past decade is that government alone cannot hope to meet and address the numerous social issues that face our state. We need to develop new methods to resolve society's problems. One of the most important of these methods is fostering a public/private partnership in civil law enforcement.

Since 1999, my office -- working with former attorney general Warren Price, the state Medicaid Investigations Division and the U.S. Attorney -- has recovered more than $7 million for the state of Hawaii and the United States. The $7 million represents the net amount paid back to the government by hospitals, doctors and drug companies who falsely billed Medicare and Medicaid.

These cases were brought under our federal and state false claims acts, which allow private parties to pursue fraud actions on behalf of the government and share in a portion of the proceeds. The false claims acts provide a model for civil law enforcement which can be used in a variety of areas.

This session the Legislature considered passage of the Elder Justice Act, which would have created a similar public/private partnership for actions for elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation. The Elder Justice Act -- modeled after a Nevada statute -- provided for civil actions to be pursued by the attorney general and for enhanced civil remedies to be pursued by the private bar. In Nevada, the private bar has worked hand-in-hand with public law enforcement officials to stop elder abuse and neglect.

Unfortunately, the Legislature deleted the private enforcement mechanism from the bill, while leaving intact the attorney general's enforcement right. Whether this half-measure will be effective in preventing elder abuse remains to be seen; however, one result of the bill is certain: The Legislature missed an opportunity to pass a law which would have conserved government resources by using private attorneys to do the state's business.

Enhanced civil remedies in the Elder Justice Act, however, is only one means to complement government's enforcement power. Allowing private individuals who have knowledge of elder abuse to pursue actions on behalf of the state is another method that should be considered in future legislative sessions. Another example might be allowing private individuals to pursue actions on behalf of the state where there is private insurance fraud.

Societal problems -- such as elder abuse, government health-care fraud and private insurance fraud -- no longer can be solved by creating new programs, which require additional resources and additional tax monies. A public/private partnership that does not require expenditure of public monies -- and that uses the private bar to recover monies for the state -- is one solution.

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Thomas Grande is an attorney in private practice
who specializes in consumer, health-care and
government-fraud litigation.