By DAN MARGOLIES

A former emergency room nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital has lost her whistleblower suit alleging the hospital falsified patient records to obtain higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Megen Duffy failed to prove an essential element of her claims, namely that the allegedly false data had an effect on how much the government paid the hospital.

Duffy worked as a registered nurse at the hospital from August 2009 until she was fired in October 2013 for allegedly threatening another employee. In her lawsuit, she alleged her termination was fabricated.

Lawrence Memorial Hospital termed her lawsuit “baseless” and claimed it violated the terms of a settlement the hospital reached with Duffy after she was fired.

Russell W. Johnson, the hospital’s president and CEO, told KCUR that the lawsuit’s outcome “reflects what we’ve known all along – that we do follow Medicare guidelines and that we do provide services in ways that are consistent with those guidelines.”

Johnson said the lawsuit “was really more a result of a personnel issue than a real transgression by the hospital. And that came out in this judgment.”

The hospital, he added, had spent more than $500,000 in legal fees and expenses – over and above its insurance coverage – defending the suit.

“In fact, I’ve got a legal bill in my inbox this month, and for the Duffy case it was $48,900,” Johnson said.

Lawrence Memorial Hospital was founded in 1921 and is licensed for 176 beds. The not-for-profit hospital is led by a nine-member board of trustees appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Lawrence City Commission. Although it’s community owned, it gets no tax subsidies from the city of Lawrence or from Douglas County.

Sarah A. Brown, one of Duffy’s attorneys, said she was assessing her client’s options, including a possible appeal.

“We believe there was evidence in the record that showed how these manipulations affected reimbursement rates,” Brown said. “So we’re going to need to evaluate whether we want to point that out to the court or point it out on appeal.”

In her lawsuit, Duffy alleged that emergency room personnel at Lawrence Memorial were instructed to alter the arrival times of possible heart attack patients to coincide with timestamps automatically generated when patients were connected to electrocardiogram monitors.

That would have significantly improved the hospital’s performance data and qualified it for higher incentive payments from the government.

In his ruling tossing out the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Sam Crow found that Duffy failed to show the allegedly inaccurate arrival time data had affected the government’s reimbursement decisions.

Duffy’s lawsuit, which sought triple damages under the federal False Claims Act, was filed under seal in May 2014. The Justice Department declined to intervene and the case was unsealed in 2015.

Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can bring lawsuits on behalf of the United States if they have reason to think the defendant knowingly submitted fraudulent claims to the government.

The Department of Justice is required to investigate the allegations and then decide whether to intervene in the case, decline to intervene or, in rare cases, seek the case’s dismissal.

The Department of Justice intervenes in fewer than a quarter of all False Claims Act cases, sometimes because it doesn’t have the resources to pursue them. Once the department declines to intervene, the person who brought the case can pursue it on his or her own, although the government often asks that it be kept apprised of filings in the case. The plaintiff is entitled to anywhere between 25 percent and 30 percent of any recovery.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies

ELLSWORTH COUNTY —Two people died in an accident just before 9:30a.m.Thursday in Ellsworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Dodge Ram driven by John Merrill Krisel, 60, Council Bluffs, IA, was westbound on Kansas 156 just west of Pennsylvania Avenue. The vehicle traveled left of center and struck a 2009 Kia Sorento driven by Kathy A. Jimmerson, 60, Dodge City, head-on.

Jimmerson and a passenger Steve W. Jimmerson, 55, Dodge City, were pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Parsons Funeral Home.

Krisel was transported to the hospital in Hoisington and later transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an aggravated robbery that sent a woman to the hospital.

A 63-year-old woman told police that at approximately 9p.m. on Tuesday, a suspect had entered the Lucky Spa in the 1600 Block of South Glendale in Wichita where she was working, according to officer Charley Davidson.

She told police the suspect struck her multiple times, choked her and she lost consciousness. The suspect then took cash from the business.

An investigating revealed that the victim awoke after several hours and made it to a nearby business to ask for help, according to Davidson. The woman was transported to a local hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The suspect is described as an unknown white male in his 30s, 5-foot-2, 140 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A jury has awarded $29 million to a doctor who said he was fired after complaining about understaffing at a hospital.

A Jackson County jury this week found in favor of emergency room physician Raymond Brovont.

Brovont worked for EmCare, a physician outsourcing company, that sent him to Overland Park Regional Medical Center and Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence, Missouri.

He complained to EmCare officials in September 2016 about what he said was dangerous understaffing at a new pediatric emergency room at the Overland Park hospital. He said in his lawsuit that EmCare officials were angry with him for complaining and told him to resign or be fired.

Brovont did not sue the hospitals.

EmCare spokeswoman Kim Warth said the company will appeal the verdict.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities and officials with USD 260 are investigating a student who allegedly around a gun to school.

According to a message sent to parents by Derby High School, a student was arrested Thursday morning and taken into custody for possession of a weapon on school property.

A tip was given to administration about a student possibly in possession of a weapon. This student was immediately secured and the unloaded gun was found by the school SRO without incident.

“Because no threat was made and the student was immediately secured, a lockdown was not necessitated,” according to the message from the school.

School officials reminded students and parents, “If you hear something or see something, please let law enforcement and administration know immediately. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Senate Republican said Thursday the confidential FBI report on charges that Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused women three decades ago “found no hint of misconduct” by the Supreme Court nominee.

 

Supplemental FBI background file for Judge Kavanaugh has been received by @senjudiciary Ranking Member Feinstein & I have agreed to alternating EQUAL access for senators to study content from additional background info gathered by non-partisan FBI agents 1/3

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 4, 2018

 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made his remarks — and urged his colleagues to confirm the conservative judge — in a written statement hours after the post-midnight delivery of the FBI document to Congress. With Kavanaugh’s uncertain prospects for approval depending in part on the decisions of five wavering senators, lawmakers began viewing the document in a secure room in the Capitol complex.

“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know,” Grassley contended, basing his comment on a briefing he said he’d received from committee aides. He added, “This investigation found no hint of misconduct.”

Democrats have complained that the FBI’s reopening of its Kavanaugh background check has been far too limited, leaving out contact with crucial potential witnesses. They say some people had reached out to be interviewed by the FBI or the Judiciary Committee but were not questioned.

White House spokesman Raj Shah rebuffed that idea, saying, “What critics want is a never-ending fishing expedition into high school drinking.” He said the FBI reached out to 10 people and interviewed nine, including “several individuals at the request of the Senate, and had a series of follow-up interviews … following certain leads.”

While the FBI interviews were to focus on sexual assault allegations, Democrats have also questioned his drinking habits during high school and college and dishonest comments they say he’s made about his background. Kavanaugh has said stories of bad behavior while drinking are exaggerated.

Grassley said the FBI could not “locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations,” and he said there is “no contemporaneous evidence.” He provided no specific detail.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has already started a process that will produce a crucial test vote in his polarized chamber Friday on Kavanaugh’s fate. Should Republicans get the majority of votes they need — and Vice President Mike Pence is available to cast the tie-breaker, if necessary — that would set up a decisive roll call on his confirmation, likely over the weekend.

“Senators ought to wipe away the muck from all the mudslinging and politics and look at this nomination with clear eyes,” Grassley said, echoing accusations against Democrats that McConnell has been making. He added, “It’s time to vote. I’ll be voting to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.”

Three women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in separate incidents in the 1980s. Kavanaugh, 53, now a judge on the powerful District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, has denied the claims.

The White House received the FBI report around 3 a.m. Thursday.

President Donald Trump weighed in hours later in a tweet in which he denounced what he called “the harsh and unfair treatment” of Kavanaugh. “This great life cannot be ruined by mean” and “despicable Democrats and totally uncorroborated allegations!”

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois told reporters Thursday that time slots for reading the FBI file are so full that senators are being told they might have to wait until Friday to read it. “They’re so swamped,” she said.

The report arrived at a Capitol palpably tense over the political stakes of the nomination fight and from aggressive anti-Kavanaugh protesters who have rattled and reportedly harassed senators. Feeding the anxiety was an unusually beefy presence of the U.S. Capitol Police, who were keeping demonstrators and frequently reporters at arm’s length by forming wedges around lawmakers walking through corridors.

Barring leaks, it was unclear how much of the FBI report, if any, would be made public. While senators from both sides have expressed support for revealing at least parts of the findings, FBI background checks on nominees are supposed to remain confidential.

With Republicans clinging to a razor-thin 51-49 Senate majority and five senators — including three Republicans — still publicly undeclared, the conservative jurist’s prospects of Senate confirmation could hinge largely on the file’s contents.

The three undecided GOP senators rebuked Trump for mocking one accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, by mimicking her responses to questions at last week’s dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters that Trump’s lampooning of Ford at a Tuesday night Mississippi campaign rally was “just plain wrong.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called it “wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable,” and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said on NBC’s “Today” show that the remarks were “kind of appalling.”

Those senators, along with Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have yet to declare how they will vote.

Trump drew laughs Tuesday with his rendition of how Ford answered questions at last week’s hearing. “I had one beer — that’s the only thing I remember,” he stated inaccurately.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s insults marked a “new low.”

Underscoring rising tensions, Democrats suggested that previous FBI background checks of Kavanaugh may have unearthed misconduct by the nominee.

Democrats wrote to Grassley challenging a Tuesday tweet by GOP aides saying prior investigations never found “a whiff of ANY issue — at all — related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse.” Democrats wrote that the GOP tweet contained information that is “not accurate.”

Committee Republicans tweeted in response that their prior tweet was “completely truthful” and accused Democrats of “false smears.”

The California psychology professor has testified that a drunken Kavanaugh sexually abused her in a locked room at a high school party in the 1980s and has said she believed he was trying to rape her.

The FBI interviewed several people, including three who Ford has said attended a 1982 high school gathering in suburban Maryland where she says Kavanaugh’s attack occurred, plus another Kavanaugh friend. The agency has also spoken to a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who has claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a Yale party when both were freshmen.

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