Court Sidesteps Question of Medical Practice Officer’s Liability to Whistleblower

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has declined to rule on whether a defendant physician could be personally liable for back pay for a medical practice employee who alleges that she was fired for reporting violations in how the medical practice handled contaminated needles.

Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. adopted the recommendation of a magistrate judge Jan. 15 in denying the U.S. Department of Labor summary judgment on that issue in a whistleblower lawsuit brought against a physician and the physician’s eponymous corporate medical practice.

This case arose when Rhonda Healey complained that she had been terminated after reporting her …