Las Vegas NowI-Team: FBI Opens Investigation into Sale of UMC Records

I-Team: FBI Opens Investigation into Sale of UMC Records

LAS VEGAS -- The trial for the former chief of UMC hospital has been delayed until next year. Lacy Thomas was fired from University Medical Center in 2007. He’s charged with 10 counts of theft and misconduct for allegedly using his position to hand out lucrative contracts to pals and cronies.

The DA's office says it is ready to go forward with its case, but the attorney for Thomas said he needed more time to study the massive police file on the case.

The judge delayed the trial until March of 2010.

The Lacy Thomas case is one of three ongoing criminal probes involving UMC.

The FBI announced it has opened a formal criminal investigation into a specific leak of patient information from UMC. Sources close to the story say the agents have already identified at least one employee suspected of selling medical files to outside entities.

This is no surprise to federal agents, though. They've been looking at this very issue for a couple of years now and it extends far beyond UMC.

Metro detectives who first raided Thomas’ office in 2007 estimate his brief tenure at the hospital cost the public about $10 million in questionable contracts handed out to his pals.

The same detectives who put together the criminal case against Thomas also uncovered an alleged multi-million dollar scheme by a few hospital employees to use public funds and facilities to create their own private business. Investigators are said to be very close to putting final touches on that complicated case so prosecutions can begin.

The news about leaks of patient information from UMC is hardly shocking to federal agents. In February 2006, the I-Team first reported the FBI was looking into a ongoing campaigns by local personal injury attorneys to drum up business in what amounted to overt ambulance chasing.

Agents, and even the state bar, learned at the time that several well known law firms had been offering bounties for information about severe injuries or accidents that could lead to court settlements or jury verdicts.

Sources told the I-Team and federal investigators that attorneys were offering up to $5,000 for such information, targeting ambulance drivers, tow truck operators, cab drivers, and emergency room personnel. It's been going on here for years.

Insurance executives say the competition among law firms for personal injury cases is directly responsible for Nevada personal injury claims being 63-percent higher than the national average, even though accident rates are only slightly higher than average.

The hotter the tip and more severe the injury, the bigger the bounty payment, which is one reason UMC is a natural target for legal predators. UMC is home to the top trauma center in the Las Vegas valley and is where the most severely injured people are hospitalized, but lawyers have also approached employees of other hospitals.

Informed sources say the FBI is pretty sure which UMC employee sold the recent batch of files. Local law enforcement agencies say they are steamed that hospital officials did not alert them when rumblings about such a serious breach of security first surfaced.

One highlight of the current investigation might be a blatant advertising campaign -- radio ads that offered special prizes to UMC employees. Two employees who called about the ads say they were offered $300 a month to hand out law firm business cards to the patients fighting for their lives in the trauma center. The employees turned down the offer but did not report it to anyone at the time.

The ambulance chaser law firms which may be paying bounties for patient information are also suspected of sending the most lucrative cases on to higher end firms in exchange for a piece of the action, the very same firms which are known to be in the FBI's crosshairs as part of the ongoing medical mafia investigation.

The FBI declines to confirm if it is looking at leaks of patient information at other hospitals, though we know the bureau cast a wide net when it began its investigation of local personal injury attorneys. One other reason why the story surfaced first at UMC is that it is the public hospital, which means there is more transparency than at private hospitals.

The FBI did say it is working closely with UMC management to put a stop to the sale of confidential files. Releasing that information is a federal crime.