St. Petersburg Times - Whistle-blower's share of settlement could grow

By Kris Hundley

Nine years ago, Jim Alderson, a mild-mannered accountant in Montana, questioned what he considered to be fishy bookkeeping practices at the hospital where he was chief financial officer.

His refusal to keep quiet threw his well-planned life into disarray: He lost his job, had to relocate his family four times after being blackballed by the hospital industry and was forced to raid his kids' college funds.

Alderson's stubborn sense of right and wrong also led to a landmark whistle-blower case against his former employer, Quorum Health Services, and Hospital Corporation of America, its former owner.

That lawsuit, which Alderson, a CPA, wrote, was filed in federal court in January 1993. The government joined the case in 1998 and moved it to Tampa. In October, Quorum agreed to settle the case and last week a formal settlement was signed.

Alderson's reward: at least 15 percent of Quorum's fine of $77.5- million, or $11.6-million.

And the payoff could grow.

There's a hearing in Tampa next month that may result in a bigger chunk of the Quorum money going to Alderson. And negotiations are continuing with Hospital Corporation of America, now known as HCA-The Healthcare Corp. The government has estimated HCA's creative cost reports meant Medicare was overbilled by about $450-million.

Though HCA's chief executive recently complained that the government was demanding too much, a multimillion-dollar settlement is all but inevitable, resulting in even more money for Alderson.

The lesson: Telling the truth can sometimes pay off big.