ST. LOUIS – A U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri’s Eastern Division judge has dismissed a suit against Mercy Clinic East Communities over allegations it falsified insurance claims.
Judge Ronnie L. White dismissed the False Claims Act complaint without prejudice in a May 14 ruling and said an appeal of the dismissal would not be taken in good faith.
Plaintiff Dr. Joule N. Stevenson sued Mercy after she was fired over her allegations that Mercy lied about insurance claims.
Stevenson hired an attorney to represent her in the matter and then ignored the attorney's recommendations to "pursue the matter on her own," White's ruling states. The ruling also noted that the federal government is the real party of interest in the case and that non-lawyers cannot litigate civil actions on the government's behalf.
“It is therefore clear that plaintiff intends to litigate this matter pro se which, as explained above, she cannot do. The court will therefore dismiss this case, without prejudice,” White wrote.
White also shut down Stevenson’s request to “order a federal investigation of the defendant in regard to false medical claims,” the ruling states, and said Stevenson’s request is outside of her constitutional rights to provoke an investigation and the court can’t compel a criminal investigation.
White also wrote he couldn’t find the reason Stevenson included in her complaint allegations that she was harassed by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and that her Facebook and Verizon accounts were hacked.
Mercy Clinic hired Stevenson in October 2016 at a Hazelwood, Missouri clinic. She alleged in May 2017 she noticed inconsistencies in her monthly earnings and requested a transfer to a different clinic, believing her manager could negatively impact her income.
Roughly a year later, she alleged she also noticed that charges to insurance companies like Medicare, Medicaid, Anthem and Cigna were being “up-coded” or “down-coded” differently than how she coded the visit, the ruling states.
Stevenson hired an attorney but didn’t follow the advice the lawyer provided, the ruling states. Stevenson took her issues to the leader of the defendant's compliance department. She alleged the IT department then wiped her computer before she was fired altogether in December 2018.
Stevenson also alleged the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department harassed her by almost running her off the road. She said her Verizon and Facebook accounts were hacked and she suffered hallucinations.