Judge orders Cox materials kept confidential

In a ruling issued today. Federal Judge Gary Fenner issued a protective order covering all documents turned over to Roger Cochran and Dennis Morris during discovery in their wrongful dismissal lawsuit against CoxHealth.

Cochran and Morris say they were fired after they uncovered fraud involving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. The lawsuit and the federal grand jury investigation into the alleged fraud were first revealed in the June 8, 2005 Turner Report.
In a court filing in June, lawyers for CoxHealth indicated they did not want any information from the case to be leaked to the media.

"Given significant media attention in the Springfield, Missouri area focused on this
case and the nature and outcome of the Government’s investigation, disclosure of these documents will subject Cox to unduly intrusive attention and repeated inquiries from representatives of the media and will clearly serve to taint the jury pool if disclosed to the media and other third parties. There is no legitimate reason why disclosure of documents produced to Plaintiffs in response to their discovery requests to any third party outside of this litigation is necessary."


Cochran and Morris say they were fired after they uncovered fraud involving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. The lawsuit and the federal grand jury investigation into the alleged fraud were first revealed in the June 8, 2005 Turner Report.