Rutgers University recently merged with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, but as a result it also inherited a pair of ongoing whistleblower claims against that school. Those cases were recently settled for a combined award of nearly $2 million.
In one of the lawsuits, the former chief financial officer of UMDNJ’s hospital in Newark claimed to have been fired after he accused some of the hospital’s top administrators of regularly defrauding the federal Medicare program. He received $1.2 million in the settlement, which was finalized in early April.
The other lawsuit came from an UMDNJ purchasing official who claimed she was terminated after she discovered the university was awarding telecommunications contracts valued at millions of dollars without any type of public bidding process. She received $700,000 in the settlement.
UMDNJ was the subject of several scandals over the years. One reported high-profile kickback scheme gave doctors no-show jobs as long as they referred patients to the cardiac surgery program at the university, which had been struggling for some time. There were also numerous instances of overbilling Medicare and Medicaid by significant amounts of money, as well as various consulting contracts given to political insiders. Since Rutgers merged with the university, it has found itself engaged in numerous legal battles to put UMDNJ’s troubles in the past.
If you are aware of existing fraud schemes within your workplace, you may be eligible to receive awards for acting as a whistleblower. Work with the skilled Dallas attorneys at Whistleblower Law for Managers for more information about how to proceed.
