That's what the former Chief Medical Officer of the CBA's insurance arm, CommInsure, is alleging. Dr Peter Koh says that the "official" reason for his termination is simply a convenient excuse to victimise him for raising ethical concerns.
The "official" reason? CommInsure says it was a lack of judgment, and breach of confidentiality obligations. Apparently, Dr Koh sent a bunch of work records to his personal email account.
Okay, so that doesn't sound great for Dr Koh. Work records for the CMO would no doubt include sensitive and personal medical records. And as a general rule, sending work stuff home is a big no no.
However, that's where the background gets a little interesting.
Dr Koh claims that he and his team were pressured to change medical reports, that insurance claims managers cherry-picked medical opinions to get out of paying claims, used delaying tactics and that medical reports and opinions were altered or went missing.
In one staggering example, Dr Koh suggests that while on the one hand CommInsure sacked an employee because of medical unfitness, it simultaneously denied the employee's Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) claim on the basis that the employee could still work.
Dr Koh says that he repeatedly raised his ethical concerns with senior management, and ultimately to the CommInsure Board, all to no avail.
Whether Dr Koh will succeed in his reported "wrongful termination" claim remains to be seen, but in the Court of public opinion, following the exposé by Fairfax and Four Corners, CommInsure is not looking so crash hot.
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