Doctor gets $250,000 for blowing whistle

SPOKANE - A doctor who alerted federal investigators to a medical-billing scam has been awarded nearly $250,000 under a law that rewards whistle-blowers.

U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald approved the award to Dr. Stephen Fox for his part in exposing a scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers of $1.2 million.

Dr. Mark Frazier, the former head of Northwest Nephrology Associates, was convicted of five misdemeanor counts of filing false statements for government payments. Frazier avoided jail time in exchange for an agreement to pay back the money.

Fox's revelation and the government's investigation revealed that Frazier asked the doctors in the group to bill insurers for a higher level of in-patient care than patients needed for two major types of dialysis.

Fox filed a complaint with the government against Frazier and Drs. Mary Anne McDonald, Leo Obermiller and Katherine Tuttle in July 1995. The government eventually dropped Tuttle as a defendant and settled with the others.