Alexa Kaner, a speech language pathologist, filed a civil action complaint against Center Management Group, LLC and 1412 Lansdowne Operating, LLC d/b/a St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 30, 2024.
Kaner alleges that she was unlawfully terminated from her employment after attempting to report illegal billing practices by the defendants. The complaint details violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and Pennsylvania Common Law. According to Kaner, she was fired for refusing to participate in fraudulent billing schemes and for reporting these activities internally.
The complaint reveals that Kaner began working as a speech language pathologist at St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation & Healthcare on March 1, 2021. Initially employed through a third-party contractor, Reliant Rehab, she was later hired directly by the defendants due to her demonstrated skills and performance. However, during her tenure, Kaner observed several instances of what she describes as "upcoding," where fraudulent billing codes were added for services not rendered or medically necessary. She claims that these practices were aimed at extracting more revenue from Medicare and Medicaid.
"Defendants consistently attempted to get Plaintiff and other therapy employees to engage in a scheme of 'upcoding,' essentially adding fraudulent billing codes for services not actually rendered or not medically necessary," the complaint states.
Kaner also alleges that defendants engaged in efforts to convince patients and their families to stay at the facility longer than medically necessary to increase payouts from Medicare and Medicaid. These actions were allegedly part of an enterprise wholly aimed at maximizing revenue rather than focusing on patient care.
Upon returning from maternity leave in February 2024, Kaner faced increased pressure from management regarding patient caseloads. Her direct supervisor resigned shortly thereafter, citing similar concerns about illegal billing practices. New administrators took over management roles by late March 2024.
On March 27, 2024, while using a designated space to pump breast milk as required under the PUMP Act provisions of FLSA, Kaner overheard upper management discussing ongoing fraudulent billing practices and plans to "weed out" employees resistant to such schemes. When confronted by administrators John Sartor and Courtney Monk about what she had heard, they became irate and threatened her job security.
Following this incident, Kaner reported her concerns about fraudulent billing practices to Human Resources but received dismissive responses from Licensed Nursing Home Administrator John Bauer. Despite providing evidence of improper billing codes being mandated by management memos dated March 26th instructing therapists to add specific codes regardless of medical necessity—Kaner's complaints were ignored.
On April 1st , Kaner was informed not return work next day pending investigation into fabricated allegations related supervision clinical fellow Ivy Yen—a pretextual reason according complaint supported testimony former supervisor Stephanie Stevens attesting falsity termination grounds both terminated April subsequent vocal opposition illegal activities
Plaintiff seeks compensatory punitive damages reinstatement lost wages benefits emotional distress attorney fees jury trial.
Represented attorneys Ari R Karpf Christine E Burke Karpf Cerutti PC case assigned Judge Gerald J Pappert Case ID No: 2:24-cv-02326-GJP