Stephen Forer v. St. Luke's Hospital
Published: May 24, 2001 | Result Date: Mar. 21, 2001 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: C994860MMC Verdict – $385,000
Judge
Court
USDC Northern
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Stephen M. Murphy
(Law Offices of Stephen M. Murphy)
Defendant
Facts
In October 1995, the plaintiff, Stephen Forer, a 48-year-old health care professional was hired by defendant, St.
LukeÆs Hospital, as the Director of Clinical Resource Management. In the first of two performance reviews
completed by former Vice President of Patient Services, Paul Hayes, the plaintiff was given positive feedback
on his job performance.
In January 1997, Vice President Mary Coulton became the plaintiffÆs supervisor. She gave the plaintiff new
goals, including to increase the case mix index (CMI), which measures the severity of patientsÆ conditions
using various diagnostic codes and is used by Medicare as a basis of the amount of its payments to hospitals.
The plaintiff complained to Coulton and Chief Executive Officer Jack Fries that it was illegal to include in
plaintiffÆs performance evaluation a criterion that he increase the CMI as it would encourage upcoding, a form
of Medicare fraud in which hospitals assign a patient a more serious diagnostic code than medically
reasonable.
The plaintiff also complained that Coulton did not fully and properly disclose critical quality and risk
management information to the Board Quality & Service Committee and Medical Staff Performance
Improvement Committee and failed to disclose a toxic leak to the California Department of Health Services.
In subsequent evaluations by Coulton, the plaintiff was given poor performance evaluations, was relieved of
some of his job duties, and was eventually laid off on Nov. 13, 1998 with three other employees, one of which
was a managerial employee like the plaintiff. The plaintiffÆs position was eliminated due to the disbanding of
the Clinical Management Resource Division.
Damages
The plaintiff claimed $75,000 in past lost earnings, $75,000 in lost future earnings and benefits and $300,000 in emotional distress damages.
Poll
7-0 (the defendant acted with malice)
Length
seven days
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