Part #54,365 in a series of examples of how the federal government makes things worse by passing well-intentioned laws. It’d be pretty uncontroversial to say that “whistleblowers” who have knowledge of illegal activity by previous employers should have a means of reporting that, particularly when the company concerned is defrauding the Federal government, and therefore the taxpayer. However, there is evidence that the False Claims Act, set up to encourage whistleblowers against those who make false claims on the Federal government by giving them 30 percent of the settlement, is proving to be a perverse incentive, encouraging a bounty-hunting mentality among fired employees. In a particularly egregious current example, a former drug executive is alleging his previous company improperly marketed a drug. How does the FCA get involved? Well, the fired employee argues that this marketing induced people to make claims on Medicaid for off-label use, thereby defrauding the taxpayer. The case is a bit of a stretch, not least because doctors regularly issue prescriptions for off-label use. Richard Samp of the Washington Legal Foundation has the full story here.