Barb Frohlich Affidavit to BCI

8/2/2019 Barb Frohlich Affidavit to BCI

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STA'II]OFNORTHDAKOTACOI.JN'I'YFBURT,EICH

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I, BarbaraFrohlich,being first duly swom, stateon oathasfollows:I. My namc s BarbaraFrohlich, t am 46 yearsold, married,and the nrotherof tburtninorchildren-2. I graduatedrom BismarckHigh Schottl-in1983,,goingon to atlenf UniversityofMary, graduatingwith BS clegrlcs n Math./NaturalScienocCompositeandMedicalTechnologY,n 1988'3. I bcgatr work at workforce safbty & lnsurance (wsl) in July 2005, havinginterviewedwith, amongothers,my current supervisor,Thomassolberg, MedicalServiccsDirectot.4. t washired with the title of "ProviclcrRelationsSpeoialist"which latcrwaschangedto ..providerRelationsRepresentative";my primary dutiesbeing o serveasa iaisonbetwc-enWSI ancl he rnedicalcommunity'5. Since I begancmploynrent. have beena permancntpart-time enrplOyee'workingtwenty hoirs a wiek, with full healthandwelfare benefits.6, During my nearlysevenyears enurewith WSl, I havereceived cgularperfornrancereviewsand havealways eceivedaboveaverage erfbrmance valuations ndnever

flny negativeconunentsor disciplinaryactionof any kind'7. on August 17,201l, I wasworking at my clesk,doing my normaldutics'when aclaimsa juster (CA) l was amiliar with stoppcdby my oflice'g, I can andwill if aske


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I t . ln my work asa liaisonbetwcenwsl and he medicalcommunity,I would frequentlytype in computerentriesregardingmy contacts hut woulclautomaticallyenter ntotiri particular claimant's fiG asa;notep4d["enQ, showingthe dateand time of theenfry and the person making the entry.'l'henotepadEntry hat hc CA showedmeon August 17,201l wasmadeby a"nursecasemsnager"(who areWSI employees)and heCA wanted-myopinionwhEtherhenotepadc,lntainedtoo detaileda rel'erenceo thc back and forth commurricationsbetwcon he CA and the nursecasemanagor'I read he notcpadentry andstated harJno concernswith the wording of it and hatwas he end of my Convercationwith the CA, who left the copy of the notepadentryon my deskwhenshe eft''l'henext morning, the sameCA who hadshownme the notepadenry the t{ b**'came o my ,lesk n the morning, informing me that the Claims Director, Kim Ehli'was going to tlelete the notepadenu'y hat the CA and I had seenand talkod about'addiie tn"gt cim Ehli told her the deletionwould occur becausehe notepadentry"weakensour [WSI] Position".As I subsequcntlywrote in my letter to thc Attorney Generalof January24,20t2'thefrrllowing expres$eshe conccrns had:

,.1interpretedsome of the generalmessages onvcyed by the NwseCaseManager ip the notepad&s he following: she was illbrmed thedecisionhal beenmade 6 rleny heclainrper a statlingtheadjusterhadwith legal; shewas nquiring about he abandonment f theplan o havea disou.ssion ith thc WSI Medical Director [Dr. Vilella] to gain hisopinion regarrJinghe IME [hdependent Medical Evaluation] report[which *i "ont rty to the opinions of the neating providers]; shenotcd it was communicated o theadjusterby a WSI attorneythattherewas no needto staffthe claim with the Mcdical Director f


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B. on August26, 2011,I met with clarc carlsonto infbrm him of my concern,egardiirg he deletionoflthenotepadentryand,also,horv L clt this instancereiatedb-acko what t believe o be pressue put on WSI's Medical Director'Dr. Vilella, approximatelyayeal before the subsequentWSI "internalaudif',lisclosed hat thisPressure as nitially broughtby'l'om Solborg,MedicalServicesDirector,andTimothy Wahlin,Chief of Injury Services; hadnofirst handknowledgeof their involvementat that time). During*ris meeting,I askedCarlson f he wanteda copycrt'the eletednotepadentryandhe saidhe did. Within the hour, I walkeda hardcopyo thedeletednotepadupto hisoft-rce nd set n on thisdcsk.The ncxt Monday, August29, ClareCarlsoncontactedme via email to meethim in ConlbrenccRoom 2A, locatodon the second loor of the building. anout of the way cont'erenceoom not normully usedby WSI staff'Curlson told me that, after thinking over the weekend, nsteadof filing aclaim with WSI'S "Iiraud I{otline". I should"consider" writing a letter oWSI Director BryanKliptbi instead,becausehatwould be"saferondeasier"and hat I could use he'iFraudHOtline" if I did not get he"gutcomc" he saidI "wantgd".Irr that meeting,ClareCarlson nformedme that WSI Director BryanKlipfelwas strongly inlluenced by Timothy Wahlin trnclJghn Halvorson' Chiefopcratilgbf icer,and hatbireqtgr Klipfel rclied heavilyuporr hose wo fordiiection and, upon hearirrg hat, I informed Clare Carlson that I was notconfident hat il'I wrote tlireAor Kipfel about he deletionof thenotepadcntxy, he mattcr would beproperly invcstigatedancl emedialactiontaken'on August 3I , 201 I , I filed my report of the deletednotepadentry and theissueoJ.'pressurcy WSI munagement n Dr. Vilella with the WSI "FraudIlotline".On Septcmber2, 201t Dircctor Klipfel called me to mect with him inconfErenceRoorn 2A, informing me that as a consequenccof my "FraudHotline" report,he wasgoingto oirjer a special internal oudit" to detcrminethe l'uctsand report bacX o him; Klipfel assuredme at that meetingtherewould be1o retaliationagainstme for filing thc "F'raud IoOine" repon'

Also, at the samemeeting, f)irector Klipfel antl I discussed he situ'ationoboutwsl MedicalDirector,Dr. Vilclla, and Dr. Vilella's complaintshathehad beenpressured o deletepassagcsiom twq of his medical reviewsofclaimants'cases,with Directoi xlipiet questioningexactlywhut s a"record"within thg meaning of the oriminal statute that prohibits destructionol'apublic recordby a public employee

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l. At the conclusionof my neeting with Klipfel, thercwasno doubt n my mindthat the ..internal audit" w,ruld bc focusing, among other things, upon thespecificnotepa.d nry rhat hadbeenordereddelctcdby ClaimsDirectorEhlithat I had reporteclo the "Ftaud Hotline"'J. ()1 Septenrber ,2011, I was contactedby WSI employeesMicole Kvas'lnternal Autlit Director zurdKrisi Kunz, Internal Auditor, who had bcenappointecl y Klipfel to conduct he "internal audit" as Director Klipf'el calledit.K. At this September7 rneeting. he wo "internal auditors" nied to convincemero separatehc notepaddeletionnratter rom the issueof the pressurcput tobcaron Dr. Vilella to delotepassagesrom two of hismedical eviews; saidwould not irgreebecausehe two were intertwined.L. Onthe sameSoptembur ,201 meeting,I specifically uestiorred hetherthc

..intemal auditi would address he notepad which I reported through the..FraudHotline." Micole Kvas told mcthatthey ("internal auditors")will do a..random"sample,but will bc sue to inclurJche notepadhat I rcported.M. On Septcmber15, 201 t mct with the "internal auditors"at my rcquest,uskirrg them if they were going to insurc that thc notepad entry that wascleletedwould beput back n the rccordso it would beavailable o the niuredworker n the ev*ntof appealinghedenialofhiVher claim,but wasgivennoassurancehat would be doneand o this day,the notepadentryhal not beenrestored o the claimant's ile.N. Thc final "intenral audit" reportwas ssuedon October25,201| and t becameobvious to me that the rcport wasnot a good lbith cftbn to address ither henotepaddeletion or the pressurebrought to bear on Dr. Vilella and I canexplain this in f'ull detail to any authorizedBCI investigatorwho asks.O. Three days later, HR Director McCormcll cameto seeme, unannounced,inquiring of my reaction to the "internal audit" and I told him of mydissatisfaction,whereuponhe stated hat "the report is final"; "you need oaccept heoutcomcandmove on", and"if you continue o visit hereand here,it will getyou n trouble." (Again. his was n the 2A Conference oom,awayfrom anYotherWSI cmPloYees).

17. Because t was obvious to me that the "internal audit" was deeply flawed' andintentionally so in my opinion, L elt compelled o addresshe matterto the AttorneyCeneral,writing a letter on November18,2011'

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On Novenber 23,201 , I received responseiom theAttorneyGeneral's ssistantanon-lawyer) statingthat the matter was "internal" with WSI and that the AG officehad no'Jurisdiction".Following up on the letter from the AG's assistant, tried, in good faith' to againaddrcss he matter with WSI, by writing a letter to Direotor Klipfel and I did so onDecember22"21ll (I will providea copyof that etter,as have o theAC's office,and I hereby ncorporate t into my affidavit and affrrm as true thosematters hat arebarsedupon my personal knowledge and that those not based on tny personalknowledge,arebasedon informationand belief that I believe o be rue)'On Jangary25,2A12, receiveda lettcr from Director Klipfel, the astparagraph fwhich I believe was not only untrue, but also was an attempt to make a case orretaliationagainstme f'or havingbroughtmy concemso DirectorKlipfel's attention;wrote a lbllow-up email to Klipfel explainingmy disagreementwithhis socusationsand hanking him fbr his previous statcmenthat he (WSI) would not retaliateagainstme in any way.Realizingthat therewould be nothing firttrer done at WSI in any regardwith respeotto my concemsrand having exhaustEdhe recommendationof the AG's assistantoagain ur1clresshe matter intemally, I dctermined hat I must bring the matterto theprop.r authorities,and, herefore.wrotemy oint letter o Attomcy GeneralSrcnehjemantlBnrleigh County StatcsAttorney Rihaon January24,2012 (again,I incorporatethat lettcr into this affidavit by reference,verifying that everything on my directknowledge s true and that thosematters have expressedbasedon information andbeliefl I bclieve o be true).In the first pageof the "intemal autlit" repofr.,datedOctober25,201 I it says hat the',scope"ofine review s from thedatcsofJanuary1,2010 throughOctober14,.201l.The notepadentry that I havc first handknowledgewas deletedby Claims DirectorEhli. as refsrencedabove, sometime n August of 201L Given that statement,assumerlhat the "internal audit" was dealing specitically with the notepadentry Iknew, on tirst handknowleclge,had been deleted(asdiscussedabove). I only latercarne to realize, upon further reading, that thc deletion of the notepad cntry Icomplaincdaboutwas not evenaddressedn the "intemal audit" report,despite heinclusivedatesof the "scope" of the "audit': and he fact that I hadbecn nformed hata major focus of the "intemal audit" was that very uotep:ldentry'

On March I,2012, f)ircctor Klipfel wrote GovernorDalrymple,specificallystatingthat the ,'intemal audit" was called by Director Klipt'el directly as a result of thecomplaint I bartmaderegarding he deletionof the notepadcntry. This statementsnot true becausehe deletionof the notepadentrywas not addressedn any regord'orevenmentioned, n the"intemal aurJit" epoftthatDirector Klipf'cl statedhecalled orthat very purpose. I was told in November2011,by Micole Kvas, hat thenotepadentrythat was delctedwould not be restoredas heir "special report" (not includedor

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statcmentso be true.

NATAL]E DA\TYNoteryPrrblbStstcof NorthDaltotaCommladon Fcb. ,2013

on this f ou,or ; [ol , ,zl\z,appearedpersondescribedn tf,e foregoingaffidavit'

To : 781?351 87

BarbaraFrotrlich

beforemE,BarbaraFrohlich, known to me to be the

My Ccimmissionxp[#:

mentioncd n the ,.intemalaudit" report)concluderl hatall the deleted nformation ntt, noi"pJ was "factually coveredi' n otherareasof the claimant's file. I reviewedthe ..specialrcport", told ihe "hternal auditors"that I disagreedwith its conclusionsand that ,"g*dl"s*, the notepadentrywas still a "record" that was deleted'I swear hat the statemcnts am making n this affrdavit are baseduPonmy acttralknowledgeexcept hose hat arebasedupon informationind belief and I affirmatively state hat I believe hose

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Documents

Barb Frohlich Affidavit to BCI