Personal Injury Law

Sacramento-area Hospital Sued For Workplace Discrimination, Part 3 of 8

By Moseley Collins, Esq.

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)

Foundation has a very clear national policy regarding Corrective/Disciplinary Action because it is obligated to have one. Foundation Group (FG) must comply with specific legal/regulatory standards that include, but are not limited to, those indicated by Medicare and other government program billing requirements, Guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Compliance Program Guidance issued by the Office of the Inspector General, and HIPAA/Privacy and Security regulations .... FG is required to have well publicized disciplinary guidelines that demonstrate its commitment to compliance and set forth the consequences for violations of compliance mandates. (See, Corrective/Disciplinary Action policy, page 1.)

In other words, state and federal laws and regulations require that Foundation follow its Corrective/Disciplinary Action policy. The last paragraph of that policy states: Employees who report compliance and/or ethics concerns in good faith will not be subject to corrective/disciplinary action for doing so... Nevertheless, even assuming the truth of Foundation's purported reason for terminating Ms. Smith, Ms. Smith was terminated in violation of Foundationr's legally mandated policy because she was terminated for printing out an improperly viewable document to show to Mr. Browne. (See Part 4 of 8.)

Full post as published by Sacramento Injury Lawyer Blog on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).