Whom to Tell about Medicare Overbilling
Professor Mary Allen is sitting in her office one day when Mark Sullivan, an accounting graduate
from five years ago, knocks on her door. Mark had been an exceptionally good student
and had started with the CPA firm Peat & Price upon graduation. After three years with that
firm, he joined MiniCare Health Company as the chief accountant and is now serving as its
controller. Mark asks if he can talk with Professor Allen in confidence and then tells her that
he has a problem: “Two years ago, I started working for MiniCare. Not long after I was
promoted to controller, I noticed that the officers of the company were doing things that I
didn’t think were right. They have overbilled Medicare on several occasions, and senior
management executives are misusing their positions by taking company perks that are
against the company code of ethics. I have talked to my superior, the financial vice president,
and he has, in essence, told me to mind my own business—that accountants are to
report results and assist management, not question them.”
Mark informs Professor Allen that he is making $110,000 a year, far more than he could
earn in another company at this stage in his career. He asks for her advice. What should Professor Allen recommend that he do? Should Mark quit his job? Should he talk to someone
else? If so, to whom? Should he go public with his information?