A whistleblower can be almost anyone. Carolyn Ferrara, on the left, worked as an office manager for a dermatologist in Florida. Ellen Murray, on the right, went to the dermatologist about a suspicious mole. Murray discovered that the dermatologist falsely diagnosed the benign spot as cancer. She talked with Ferrara, and the two filed a whistleblower suit. Just this week, the two have been awarded a million dollars of the restitution that the federal government has recovered from the dermatologist under the whistleblower suit. The doc went to jail.Those with direct knowledge of fraud can file a claim. In this case reported on by Susan Taylor Martin on tampabay.com, the doctor operated on Murray seven times for skin spots that experts later found were not malignant. She reported the misdiagnoses to the federal Medicaid fraud unit and to the state's Department of Health. Neither responded. When she talked to Ferrara, Ferrara knew of several other patients who had been diagnosed multiple times. The doc operated on 13 patients 20 or more times. One patient was operated on 122 times.
Murray and Ferrara decided to file in federal court. The litigation took 4 1/2 years. Ferrara suffered financially because other doctors did not want to hire a whistleblower.
Ultimately, the two prevailed, and Ferrara's financial worries are over for now. She plans to help the food banks because they helped her. Murray plans to donate some of her settlement to an organization that provides guide dogs for the blind.
Posts
1 comment:
No one wants to hire a whistleblower. It's a way of killing the messenger. Also, if a federal qui tam F.C.A. is in fact filed, say, against a major pharmaceutical corporation by a realtor, that realtor's name is now visible and listed on what is called, "The PACER System." As a result, any potential employer can access this list on this system to discover who may be a threat to their business with potential candidates. Some chose not to go along, and sacrifice getting along with others.
Post a Comment