Firing a billing manager praised for her experience in a recent performance evaluation because of her lack of expertise needed by an experienced billing manager sounds like it could be a pretext for termination, a federal District Court in Washington has ruled. It has allowed the employee to proceed with her suit for retaliation under the federal False Claims Act. Lori Cook, who had experience with 28 years of physician billing, 20 years of hospital billing (some overlapping the physician billing), 2 years of long term care billing, and 7 years of home health billing, was hired by Harrison Medical Center in April 2011 and was employed as billing manager for its home health operation. At her...