Farnsworth v. HCA, Inc. – May 2015 (Summary)

FALSE CLAIMS ACT – RETALIATION

Farnsworth v. HCA, Inc., No. 8:15-cv-65-T-24-MAP (M.D. Fla. May 29, 2015)

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida dismissed a retaliation claim brought by a Vice President of Quality and Risk Management (the “VP”) under the False Claims Act after she was placed on administrative leave for insubordination and was never allowed to return to work. She alleged that she was departed not because of insubordination but, rather, because during her five-month tenure with the organization, she uncovered a number of compliance failures on the part of the hospital that employed her and reported many of those failures to surveyors and government agencies. Many of the compliance failures, she alleged, constituted violations of the False Claims Act because they resulted in improper bills to Medicare and Medicaid.

The court recited the many compliance issues alleged by the VP, including but not limited to: that the hospital’s medical records personnel were actually employed through a third party rather than through the hospital itself, that medical records were improperly altered, that residents performed treatment without appropriate supervision by physicians, that research was conducted without full MEC and Board approval, and that an incident of sexual abuse at the hospital was not promptly reported to the state. Having recited the allegations, the court noted that while the alleged activities of the hospital may be “bad acts or practices,” in many cases the VP did not allege that she tried to do anything to stop those practices or report them to her supervisors so that they could correct them. For the few activities she did report, and for which she alleged she suffered retaliation, she failed to assert a sufficient connection to a bill that was submitted to Medicare or Medicaid. Having found the VP’s allegations to be largely “extraneous, irrelevant, and inflammatory allegations that have no bearing on her FCA claim,” the court dismissed the lawsuit, granting the VP leave to amend her complaint to focus on those instances in which she reported a billing violation to her supervisors.