A woman has filed a whistleblower retaliation claim against her former employer, Southwest Health System Inc., alleging that her employer retaliated against her for whistleblowing.

The plaintiff, Robyn B., filed the whistleblower retaliation claim in Colorado federal court. The lawsuit was filed on April 3, 2018.

According to the whistleblower retaliation claim, Robyn worked as a registered nurse for Southwest for 13 years. She worked as the Hospital’s Health Information Manager, responsible for medical and billing and coding. She was allegedly retaliated against and fired on Aug. 8, 2017, the lawsuit states.

The previous whistleblower claim filed under the False Claims Act (FCA) had accused Southwest of allowing individuals other than nurses to administer intravenous infusion (IV). Other violations included the hospital of improperly documenting critical care minute billings, and of adding IV “start and stop times to patient records retroactively,” the lawsuit states.

The whistleblower retaliation claim asserts that these acts resulted in fraud and that it also violated Medicare and Medicaid regulations and coding guidelines. Robyn claims these acts were illegal and violated medical provider ethical obligations.

Robyn says that she continuously complained to the hospital’s management staff over these actions, but worried that they were “out to get her.” She says that while on Family Medical Leave (FML) and other extenuating circumstances, she was told she was being fired over Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) violations.

Robyn alleges that the company did retaliate against her and that she was fired because of her internal complaints to hospital management staff about Medicare fraud.

Filing a Whistleblower Retaliation Claim

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the False Claims Act was enacted by Congress in 1863. It was enacted due to concern that during the Civil War, the Army was being defrauded by those that supplied goods to the Union Army. Although the FCA has been amended several times since then, it provided that “any person who knowingly submitted false claims to the government was liable for double the government’s damages plus a penalty.”

Currently, a person liable for FCA violations is liable of a civil penalty between $5,000 and $10,000 for each false claim and “treble the amount of the government’s damages.”

In 1986, whistleblower protection was added to the False Claims Act to prevent employers from retaliating against employees and prevent them from speaking up when necessary. Whistleblowers play an important role when it comes to exposing unlawful activity and fraud against the United States government, and are protected from retaliatory acts such as the act of being fired or wrongfully terminated.

Under the False Claims Act, cases alleging wrongful or retaliatory claims for whistleblower cases have a statute of limitation varying between thirty days and 6 years. In most states, however, they allow for a 2-year statute of limitations for retaliatory claims under whistleblower cases.

The Whistleblower Retaliation Claim is Case No. 1:18-cv-00763-LTB, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.