CoxHealth’s legal woes

Cory Smith

Posted online December 25, 2005 | 11:00 pm

CoxHealth is still in limbo with two separate but related legal issues: a civil employment lawsuit filed against it in June and a criminal investigation into alleged Medicare fraud that U.S. Attorney Todd Graves launched in December 2004.

On Nov. 21, U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner put the civil case on hold for six months, staying discovery to allow federal prosecutors an unimpeded investigation.

In the criminal matter, Graves is exploring allegations that CoxHealth defrauded Medicare in its billing processes.

In the civil matter, former CoxHealth employees Roger Cochran and Dennis Morris claim they were fired because they blew the whistle on Medicare fraud related to dialysis services. However, Graves wrote in a Sept. 7 court document that they don’t qualify for whistleblower legal protection since they weren’t the original source of information about the alleged fraud. Whistleblower is “a term (the plaintiffs’ attorney Matthew Placzek) wants to use because it’s very inflammatory,” said CoxHealth spokesman Chris Whitley.

Fenner on Nov. 21 ordered all parties to file status reports every 60 days so he could monitor the situation. The first status reports are due Jan. 21.

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