Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) has agreed to pay $389,355 to settle a civil lawsuit related to its former work as the prime medical services provider for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington and joined this week by the Department of Justice, claimed CSC falsely said it met its contract requirements to establish a functioning electronic medical records system for Hanford. The company denied the allegations.
Computer Sciences Corp. held the Hanford occupational medical services contract from 2005 to 2012. It continued as a subcontractor to Hanford’s current medical provider, HPM Corp., after the CSC contract expired. In 2015, CSC merged its medical contract business with another company to form CSRA Inc.
Two former CSC information technology employees sued the company in December 2016 under the False Claims Act. Months before that, Kirtley Clem and Matthew Spencer had prevailed in a civil trial before a Department of Labor administrative law judge. They argued they had lost their CSC jobs after reporting failures in the electronic medical records system CSC was required to have operating by the end of its contract. Clem and Spencer were awarded a combined $216,000 in back pay and compensation.
The Justice Department notified the court on Tuesday that it was both intervening in the 2016 lawsuit and that a settlement agreement had been reached that day. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko unsealed the Justice Department notice.
Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers may share in any funds recovered by the federal government. Clem and Spencer will receive a combined $81,764 of the settlement with the Justice Department and also an undisclosed amount for legal costs.
“The health and well-being of Hanford Site workers is paramount to the U.S. Department of Energy’s mission,” said April Stephenson, DOE acting inspector general, in a statement on Thursday. “Because of the hazardous environment in which these workers conducted department operations, it is vital that proper health records are maintained.” The Office of the Inspector General investigated the claims in the lawsuit.
Clem and Spencer said in court documents that as CSC’s September 2012 deadline to install the system approached, it made assignments too late to its IT staff, cut the staff by half, and installed a manager in who lacked the correct experience.
The company activated the system in September 2012, but there were multiple problems, according to the lawsuit. It never functioned and intended, and a replacement system was eventually put in place, court records state.
