To tell or to censor the truth?

My 1st post. I am writing a non-fiction book. I am a whistle blower. I have found massive amounts of medicare/medicaid fraud being committed by home health care agencies and medical suppliers here in the state of Texas (in the billions of dollars annually). Unfortunately this fraud is buttressed by the same state governmental agency which licenses these private agencies. The state did their investigation and then swept my fraud complaints under the rug. It is my hope that someone like Oprah Winfrey will use my book to expose this fraud and make it known to the American public.

We have been taking care of my 84 yr old mother here at home for 10 years. She is in her late stages of dementia and is under guarded condition. During these 10 years I have uncovered deriliction, incompetence, as well as medicare/medicaid fraud.

My question is, how can I write a true account of what has happened? The guilty parties are the state and the home health care agencies. I am the innocent party here. In my book, what can I say, or not say, in order to get the truth out to the public, and yet not get sued by the guilty parties (the state and the home health care agency)?

Can I say the truth, name real agency names, name the State of Texas, people, nurses, incidences, etc.? Or do I need to protect the guilty by saying something like, "Far, far away in the land of XYZ in the state of 123, we contracted the services of a home health care agency called ABC? Or do I make up ficticious names and at the beginning of the book say "the names have been changed to protect the guilty?".

Recently New York and California got busted big time for medicare/medicaid fraud. Believe me, Texas is ready for a good scrubbing. In 99.9% of these cases, governmental agency heads and politicians were nowhere to be found for comments, or simply refused to comment.

Your input is appreciated.

The first thing is that in America we are entitled to say what we want (although there are exeptions such as words that ensight imminent violence). Nothing is stopping you from writing your book.

The second thing is that in America we are entitled to sue whoever we want. So if these individuals/businesses want to sue you they will (and they probably have the money to go through with it).

Remember that if you are sued for defamation that truth is always a defense to that type of action.

I say write your book but don't forget to speak to an attorney to find out whether or not he/she thinks you should change names or keep them real.