Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman

I thought that I would kick things of here at sixesallround with a book review - The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman by Peter Rost.

As you have probably guessed from the title, Rost is a whistleblower who spoke up about illegal actions which had been carried out by pharmaceutical companies that he was working for. This book was immensely entertaining. Rost was able to leverage recent Enron-inspired legislation, which affords whistleblowers significant protection from retaliation by their company, to speak out against his own company without getting sacked (well, for a while, anyway). The way he outmanoeuvred both lawyers and top company executives had me chuckling at every turn.

Let's not forget here, that what he was actually doing was also a good thing. The practices that he blew the whistle on were not only illegal, but also morally reprehensible. I have always had a huge problem with the way that the health industry (both medical and pharmaceutical) seem to be far more eager to line their pockets than actually give people the best medical care that they can.

I guess I did not find it surprising that he had his critics. Executive and medical director of the ACSH, Dr Gilbert Ross, voted for Rost for what he considered to be the ignominious title of the biggest “whiny whistleblower” for 2005. Let's just take a moment to examine the kind of man who would even come up with an award that denigrates whistleblowers. Ross has form. He has spent time incarcerated for his role in a scheme which defrauded the New York Medicaid program to the tune of $8 million. A judge once said of him that he was "a highly untrustworthy individual". As you can imagine, Rost was not overly offended by this flaccid attempt to ridicule him.

The Whistleblower comes highly recommended. I like Rost and hope that if I ever find myself in a similar position that I will take on the bastards, rather than being a "good employee".