Healthcare information
technology vendor IDX Systems Corp. on Monday placed on
administrative leave a top official who supervised a
whistleblowing physician executive who alleges IDX committed
fraud on a federal informatics contract.
IDX placed
Larry Krassner, president of its Carecast integrated
clinical-financial software division, on paid leave, and
Michael Raymer, vice president for Carecast marketing, has
been named acting president of the Seattle-based division,
company sources confirm.
Employees also have been
instructed not to contact Krassner and to report to management
any communication they may receive from Krassner. IDX
spokesperson Margo Happer calls this directive "a matter of
company policy" regarding employees on leave.
Happer,
at company headquarters in Burlington, Vt., says that Krassner
is on paid leave but will not specify the reasons. Happer does
say, however, that the move "has absolutely nothing to do with
the Leon matter."
The IT vendor is embroiled in a
dispute with Mauricio Leon, M.D., senior director of medical
informatics in the Seattle office, who says he is on unpaid
leave from the company. Leon alleges in a federal lawsuit that
IDX retaliated against him for attempting to blow the whistle
on perceived fraud.
IDX on April 25 sued Leon in
federal court in Seattle, asking the court to declare that the
company would not be in violation of the federal False Claims
Act or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for retaliation against a
whistleblower should IDX decide to terminate Leon.
In
its suit, IDX says that Leon was an "at will" employee with a
salary of $160,000 plus bonus who demanded three years'
severance pay and payments to cover his costs of relocating
from the Seattle area to San Diego for personal reasons, terms
that IDX deems "exorbitant."
Leon filed a suit of his
own last month in the same federal court. In that action, Leon
says he reported his concerns to Krassner, his superior, who
Leon says thanked him for bringing questions of wrongdoing to
management's attention.
IDX denies Leon's charges and
is not otherwise commenting on the contents of the suit.
Attempts to contact Krassner have been
unsuccessful.
