Cancer Center Fraud Exposed by Whistleblower Employee
By Adam Decker, Marketing ―
When a cancer clinic technician saw officials cover up unsanitary practices, she made the decision to act and report the fraud she saw.
Kristi Beeson worked as a lab technician at the Rose Cancer Center in Summit, Colorado starting in July 2010. Within a year, Beeson noticed suspicious things starting to happen.
Beeson was called into meetings for the staff to go over specific patient charts and to make corrections for any existing irregularities in preparation for an audit. Beeson knew this behavior wasn’t right and when she told her husband about it, he encouraged her to give two weeks’ notice right away.
Time to Blow the Whistle
The very same day she gave notice, Beeson decided to contact the authorities. She informed them about the fraudulent activities she had seen at the clinic, making her one of four whistleblowers on what turned into a multi-million dollar, healthcare fraud case.
This case resulted in the shutdown of the cancer clinic. The courts sentenced Chief Physician Dr. Meera Sachdeva to 20 years in federal prison and fined her $8.2 million on charges of healthcare fraud.
Repeat Performances Pending?
When asked if she would do the same thing again if the occasion called for, Beeson was firm in her reply.
“I definitely would report anything of this type to the authorities,” Beeson said. “Medical professionals are held in high respect and trusted by patients. Doctors and nurses should never do anything to breach this trust in any way. Patients also put their lives into their hands. When this trust is broken by these medical professionals, something does need to be done about it.”
An Example to Emulate
Attorney Marlene Koury, a member of a law practice which handles whistleblower cases, commended Beeson’s actions.
“Her courage is very special,” said Koury. “If she hadn’t spoken up like she did, this outrageous conduct by Dr. Sachdeva would have gone on for many years.”
The unsanitary practices used at the clinic included re-using syringes and using the same bag of chemotherapy drugs for different patients.
How do we protect patients from fraudulent activities at medical practices and clinics? One possible solution is provided by the up-and-coming technology of EyeDetect™. EyeDetect is a lie detection technology that boasts 85% accuracy. If used in conjunction with audits, this technology could detect those participating in fraud before it gets out of hand.
