by P.D. Lesko

On June 15, 2022, Hospice of Michigan (HOM), located on Oak Valley Drive in Ann Arbor, was hit with a False Claims Act whistleblower suit that alleges the non-profit engaged in systematic Medicaid fraud. The suit was filed in the United States District Court Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division. Prior to being fired on July 20, 2021, the filing says plaintiff Gregory Parry, a Michigan State Law School graduate, had been promoted. He worked as the non-profit’s General Counsel/Assistant Vice President. In 2015, Parry was hired as the Hospice of Michigan’s Director of Contract Services. The court filing alleges Parry was terminated because he “oppos[ed] longstanding, serious, unlawful activities” by HOM. In 1984, Gregory Parry earned an undergraduate degree from Western Michigan in criminal justice.

HOM posted net revenues of $2.1 million on gross income of $66.2 million in 2021, according to public income tax returns, and has 623 employees and over 400 volunteers. The bulk of HOM’s revenue comes from program services. The non-profit’s current president is Robert Cahill. Cahill joined HOM in 1998 and his current pay is $739,350.

One former employee, a social worker, said, “The organization is very top heavy with many redundant executives making high salaries.”

According to HOM’s 990 income tax form, there are ten executives at the non-profit who earned over $200,000 in 2021. The total executive compensation in 2021 was $3.46 million with another $277,443 in additional compensation for the ten executives. The non-profit has $40.4 million in total assets including $7.24 million in temporary savings and cash, as well as $19.2 million in investments, including publicly traded securities.

Allegedly, Gregory Parry was investigating his employer’s systematic and “long-standing” violations of the Michigan and federal Medicaid False Claim Acts. Parry’s court filing says that when his employer learned of his investigation, and his intention to turn over the information uncovered to state and federal officials, an unnamed HOM executive fired Parry and told him the dismissal was the result of Parry suddenly having become “hostile.”

Parry’s suit claims he was fired in retaliation for not agreeing to violate the law, and not agreeing to cover up Hospice of Michigan’s violations of the law. In Mar. 2022, he began a new job at the Luminex Corporation.

HOM was contacted by email for a comment, but has not yet replied. The day Gregory Parry was fired, HOM posted a job announcement seeking a new general counsel.

Read the text of the lawsuit, below: