Troubles at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey persist as the institution, a top producer of minority health professionals, was hit last month with a lawsuit from a former executive who claims he was forced out because he helped uncover allegedly illegal financial practices.
The lawsuit is a link in a chain of scandalous events that have plagued UMDNJ in the past 12 months. The university is currently under the close scrutiny of a federal monitor, former federal Judge Herbert J. Stern, who was appointed by U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie more than a year ago.
Christie installed Stern as a monitor soon after Christie charged UMDNJ with Medicaid fraud in December 2005.
Five lawsuits have been filed against UMDNJ in the past six months, all of which are being disputed by the university.
James Lawler, former chief financial officer at UMDNJ’s University Hospital in Newark, filed his suit in Essex County, N.J., claiming university officials tried to “coerce” him into signing a fraudulent and illegal Medicare report and forced him to quit his job when he refused to cooperate.
“Mr. Lawler voluntarily resigned his position as CFO at University Hospital and we will dispute any assertion to the contrary,” says UMDNJ spokeswoman Anna Farneski.
In his suit, Lawler is seeking unspecified damages along with severance pay and legal fees. Several attempts to reach Lawler’s attorney, Bruce McMoran, by phone were unsuccessful.
Last year began with a report that UMDNJ paid $83,700 to chauffeur the director of the volunteer advisory board from her home in Pennsylvania’s Poconos to the Newark campus in a town car.
Then two more scandals surfaced including disclosure of a system in which job applicants were formally graded based on their political connections and a secret political slush fund used to get favors with the powerful and elite.
Things went from bad to worse when a cardiology kickback scheme surfaced; local cardiologists were given high-paid, no-show jobs and in return, they would funnel their patients into a heart surgery program the state had placed on probation.
