MARSHALL – A Rusk County woman claims a home health agency she formerly worked for violated the False Claims Act when it terminated her for providing information to the federal government through the Medicare program, recent Marshall federal court records show.
Tatum, Tex. resident Leigh Anne Lloyd filed a lawsuit against Valerieanne and Floyd, Inc., doing business as Elite Home Health, on Sept. 19, stating the defendant’s actions were retaliatory in nature.
EHH employed Lloyd as a marketer at its Longview office. She explains that investigators from Medicare and from the Office of the Inspector General interviewed her and directed her “not to disclose the nature or content of the interview with anyone.”
After the investigators left the EHH office, court documents say, the defendant’s CEO, John Craig, immediately approached Lloyd, took her to his private office, and “asked the plaintiff directly about what she discussed with the Medicare and OIG investigators.”
According to Lloyd, she refused to answer Lloyd’s questions much to his chagrin. The suit says that Craig terminated her without providing a reason a week later.
Craig purportedly communicated false information to the plaintiff’s prospective employers in an attempt to thwart her efforts to find employment.
Consequently, Lloyd seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
William S. Hommel, Jr. of the Hommel Law Firm in Tyler is representing the complainant.
Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas Case No. 2:18-CV-0399