A federal jury in Boston was recently asked by a former physical therapist working for a nursing home facility to grant her an award for allegedly being fired over uncovering and reporting alleged fraudulent billing practices.

According to Law360, the plaintiff for this  whistleblower retaliation lawsuit is Rosemary M., a former physical therapist who worked for the nursing home facility, Therapy Resources Management Inc.

She alleges that she had been fired over reporting false claims that were sent to the U.S. government.

According to the False Claims Act, retaliatory firing is against the law. The False Claims Act specifically allows whistleblowers to uncover fraudulent activity and awards them for doing so.

It allows the whistleblowers to file a qui tam lawsuit on the behalf of the government to get the money back that they had lost.

According to Law360 and the whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, Rosemary’s employer had contracts to provide physical therapy at the skilled nursing home facility. However, she later sued the facility for billing the government more than what they had actually done and for services not rendered.

According to Law360 and their understanding of the whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, Whittier Health Network LLC, the network for the facility headquartered in Massachusetts, agreed to settle for $2.5 million.

Monday was the first time the jury had heard her claims regarding a retaliatory response carried out by her employer.

According to Law360, the plaintiff’s attorney said, “You can’t fire an employee who brings concerns about fraudulent billing to your attention.” The attorney also said, “You can’t fire an employee who tried to stop the fraud.”

The whistleblower retaliation lawsuit also noted that Therapy Resources Management’s only objective was to gain the most money possible out of Medicare and they would not tailor their physical therapy sessions much to a patient’s needs.

Rosemary alleges that the facility set and scheduled the physical therapy sessions for the highest reimbursement rates and had scheduled those appointments for cases with the most complex procedures. Using this method, the facility could increase the reimbursement amount due for those sessions solely to get more money.

According to Law360, the jury trial will last until Thursday. Moreover, the judge presiding over the case told the jurors not to take notes. Rather, the only thing that it comes down is who they believe more: the plaintiff or her former employer.

Therapy Resources Management Inc., chose not to provide any opening statements on Monday. However, they have depicted a different version of the plaintiff in motion papers.

According to TRM, the plaintiff was allegedly actually fired for a collapse in the relationship she had had with her managers. She is allegedly being accused of instigating it herself.

Law360 further mentions that Rosemary had further complained of her stress levels and had allegedly declined to work with TRM for any help or to do anything to decrease the stress levels.