Radiologist seeks $8M in lawsuit alleging retaliation after he blew whistle against peers
An Oregon radiologist is suing one Kaiser Permanente-affiliated physician group claiming he faced retaliation after surfacing fraud allegations against two fellow physicians. The practice “strongly disputes” the allegations.
Daniel “Layne” Tarbox, MD, and his attorney filed the complaint Oct. 28 in the Marion County Circuit Court. Tarbox was first hired in July 2013 by Northwest Permanente, the largest medical group in Oregon and southwest Washington, employing more than 1,300 physicians across numerous specialties.
The diagnostic radiologist’s action stems from the alleged conduct of Joe Shen, MD, and Dorothy Pao, MD, a married couple employed by NWP until November 2022. In summer of that year, Tarbox learned that the husband purportedly was reading exams or taking shifts for his wife.
This included Joe Shen allegedly using Dorothy Pao’s credentials to interpret images, “causing the creation of fraudulent medical records,” according to the complaint.
“[Dr. Tarbox] reasonably believed that logging in with another radiologist’s credentials to read exams and document the findings was a violation of the law and the rules governing the practice of medicine,” Salem, Oregon, attorney Larry L. Linder wrote in the lawsuit filed Monday. “Plaintiff also reasonably believed it was a crime to practice medicine without a license or to impersonate anyone to whom a license has been granted by the Oregon Medical Board.”
Both Shen and Pao declined to comment when reached by The Lund Report, which first shared news of the lawsuit Thursday. In April, the Oregon Medical Board issued an order accusing Pao of unprofessional conduct, obtaining funds by misrepresentation, allowing another to use her license, and filing a fraudulent claim. With the order, Pao surrendered her Oregon medical license while under investigation, agreed to not apply for such credentials again in the state, and assessed a civil penalty of $10,000. The medical board opened the investigation after receiving a complaint in December 2022.
Northwest Permanente shared a statement with The Lund Report in response to Tarbox’s Oregon Circuit Court suit.
“We highly value our employees and physicians, and we are committed to keeping them safe in the workplace,” NPW said. “This includes protecting them from discrimination, harassment and retaliation. We strongly dispute the claims in this case and will vigorously defend ourselves.”
History of allegations
Around November 2022, Layne Tarbox’s unidentified partner at the Salem, Oregon, Permanente office claimed colleagues hadn’t heard from Pao in over two years. Her employee badge for entering the offices was deactivated in summer 2020 after not being used for 90 days and never reissued afterward.
“We don’t even know if she’s OK,” the partner is quoted in the lawsuit. However, when Tarbox suggested phoning the husband, his Salem practice partner purportedly replied: “Don’t do that, he can be really vindictive.”
Another colleague, Christina Blecher, MD, allegedly had reported the allegation one year prior. It had become so well known that physicians started calling it the “DOJO problem,” combining their two names into one word (Dorothy + Joe). Blecher allegedly told plaintiff Tarbox that it would cause problems if the husband and wife’s conduct ever escaped the radiology department.
Dr. Shen allegedly became combative when confronted with the allegations, according to the complaint. He emphasized his value within the department and said he was handling up to 4x a normal radiologist’s workload.
“This concerned plaintiff because, if true, Shen was doing up to 150 hours of work per week, which would be impossible to perform without compromising quality and creating a risk to patient care,” the lawsuit claims. “Shen did not answer where Pao was working and denied any wrongdoing.”
In the same month, Tarbox purportedly relayed his concerns with the radiology department’s executive committee, stating he believed the couple had committed fraud. He also had found evidence within Northwest Permanente’s PowerScribe software that Shen used his wife’s license to interpret images.
“Plaintiff was able to gain information evidencing that Shen and Pao were both logged in at the same workstation, minutes apart, at the Interstate clinic on September 12, 2022,” the complaint states. “This data was consistent with Shen finishing reading a study for himself, logging out, and then logging back in as Pao to read the next study.”
Teran Colen, MD—allegedly handpicked by Shen to be the next chief of radiology beginning in 2023—phoned the plaintiff on Nov. 10, 2022. During the call, the first time the two had ever spoken, the incoming department leader allegedly “pressured and intimated” Tarbox to stop him from disclosing the accusations to NWP leaders. The department chief also allegedly relayed the allegations to Shen, despite plaintiff Tarbox asking him not to.
Colleagues purportedly pressured Tarbox to drop his investigation, leading to Shen phoning again Nov. 10 to up the pressure on the plaintiff. Shen was said to be a powerful, respected and “larger than life” figure in the department, according to court documents.
“Shen asked, ‘You don’t want to bring down the whole ship, do you?’” the complaint charged. “‘Have you thought that maybe the problem is in your head? You should listen to your colleagues.’”
Leadership alerted of the matter
Tarbox and his attorney said that he ignored these warnings and reported the allegations to Eric Poolman, MD, who became the department’s director of operations in September 2022. The plaintiff also shared his concerns with a fraud hotline listed on the practice’s website and other members of the leadership team.
Tarbox said he was eventually contacted by an NWP attorney on Nov. 11, and the husband and wife resigned from the practice the following day. Tarbox claimed during a Nov. 16 meeting and subsequent email discussing Pao and Shen’s departure that he was treated poorly while leadership praised staffers who allegedly intimated him.
“NWP’s conduct throughout plaintiff’s reporting, including the November 16, 2022, email, was confusing and disheartening to plaintiff, and cultivated a lack of trust in NWP to follow its own policies and protect its employees,” the lawsuit alleges. “Throughout [Tarbox’s] employment at NWP, plaintiff has received policies and training from NWP emphasizing and advertising a ‘speak up’ culture that invites reporting concerns, prompt investigations and antiretaliation. Plaintiff’s treatment by NWP was not consistent with the policies and training that was provided. Instead, [he] experienced threats, resistance and retaliation for reporting, expressing disbelief in plaintiff’s complaints, a failure to investigate, and praising employees for engaging in threats, resistance and retaliation.”
Someone at NWP allegedly removed Shen and Pao’s names from PowerScribe after their departure, preventing others from unearthing evidence of the accusations. A compliance investigator from NWP spoke with Tarbox about the matter on Nov. 30, 2022, but allegedly never acted on the whistleblower’s concerns. This left the plaintiff feeling “abandoned, alone and vulnerable.”
After Teran Colen, MD, took over as department chief, he allegedly was disrespectful in communications with the radiologist and sought retaliation for the previous DOJO controversy. But department leader Poolman allegedly ignored Tarbox’s 2023 complaints of being “threatened, bullied, deceived and intimidated” by NWP employees.
A year later in December 2023, the matter had allegedly not been investigated further. By January 2024, Tarbox reported his concerns to human resources at NWP. At the time, executive committee member Cody MacMillan allegedly told the rad: “‘[I]t sounds like it's not uncommon for people to be sort of disappeared if they aren't towing the party line,’ and that there is a ‘no asshole’ policy at NWP. MacMillan gave an example of another colleague who disappeared without explanation. These assertions increased ‘plaintiff’s fear and apprehension regarding his job security,” the lawsuit charged.
In early 2024, Tarbox purportedly learned that Pao and Shen were working for NWP again through a third-party provider. He contacted the organization to inquire about the husband and wife’s employment. But leadership at NWP allegedly phoned the physician shortly after to threaten him with litigation for reaching the outside company.
During the whole two-year period of turmoil, Tarbox claims he was targeted with retaliatory actions such as working extended hours and taking on increased duties. NWP allegedly adopted “negative scheduling changes” in 2024 that only impacted Tarbox, with increased job duties outside of his regular Salem, Oregon, office. Practice leaders also allegedly asked him to work “two shifts in one day,” which was something “he had never experienced.”
This all led to Tarbox on Oct. 7 of last month reaching out to a mental health crisis hotline NWP offers its employees. He spoke with Jennifer Scarborough, who allegedly relayed that management could use the content of the conversation to terminate his employment.
“Scarborough discouraged plaintiff from pursuing his claims stating he was not strong enough and did not have the power to take on NWP and should instead just focus on nice things in his life—that ‘ignorance is bliss.’ Scarborough stated that NWP would grind plaintiff down,” the complaint contends.
Attorneys said that the radiologist has suffered and continues to suffer “humiliation, anxiety, distress and impairment” of his own “personal dignity and right to be free from discrimination or interference.” He’s also allegedly suffered economic damages including past and future wages, benefits and other expenses. He is seeking economic damages at up to $750,000 and other noneconomic retribution not to exceed $7.5 million, which would be determined by a jury at trial.
The radiologist still remained employed at NWP at the time of the lawsuit’s filing.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.