A case making its way through a West Virginia federal court could have significant implications for whistleblower cases.

In an interesting twist, a hospital employer that is a defendant in a civil qui tam lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has sued the whistleblower for not reporting the alleged misconduct internally.

In his complaint filed under the federal False Claims Act, Louis Longo, executive vice president at Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia, from November 2011 to August 2015, claims that the company overpaid certain doctors with high patient volumes in exchange for patient referrals. The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in part of the lawsuit.

In response, Wheeling Hospital filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, alleging that Longo breached his fiduciary duty to his former employer. Specifically, the hospital claims, Longo was obligated to report firsthand knowledge of any violations of federal law or regulation at the hospital, and to “refrain from threatening to bring false claims in an effort to extort a settlement.”

The FCA does not mandate that a whistleblower report the alleged misconduct to the employer before bringing suit. The hospital's complaint, however, claims that Longo, at the time of his hiring as executive vice president, affirmed that he had received, read and understood the hospital's compliance plan, which required him to report any violations of federal law or regulation that he witnessed to the hospital's corporate compliance officer—action he never took.

The complaint also charges abuse of process, noting that Longo failed to disclose to the government results of a 2015 Internal Revenue Service audit that reviewed compensation for the doctors named in his complaint and that nothing indicated that the physicians were earning more than fair market value.

“By filing a meritless and fabricated FCA complaint, Longo willfully and maliciously misused and misapplied a legal process to accomplish a purpose not intended or warranted by that process,” the hospital's complaint said.

The suit seeks $75,000 for each claim, as well as punitive damages and attorney fees.

Dennis Merley, an attorney at Minneapolis firm Felhaber Larson who monitors developments in employment law nationwide, said a ruling in favor of the hospital could raise the stakes for potential whistleblowers, particularly those who want to claim that they did come forward but that the employer did not respond.

“It will be interesting to see [the rulings] because whistleblowing is so easy to assert,” he said in an interview. “Now they're going to have to come with the proof because if they don't actually prove that they tried to blow the whistle, they themselves could be sued.”

Longo's defense attorney in the suit brought by the hospital, Sharon Potter of Spilman Thomas & Battle in Wheeling, declined to comment on the case. In the FCA suit, he is represented by prominent qui tam law firm Phillips & Cohen, which, through a spokesperson, also declined to comment.

In its suit in West Virginia, the hospital is represented by Barnes & Thornburg.

In a March statement announcing that it had sued Longo, the hospital described him as a “disgruntled ex-employee hoping to obtain a quick and plentiful settlement.”

“As a Catholic hospital, we expect every member of our staff, as well as our partners, to conduct themselves with honor and integrity,” Wheeling Hospital general counsel Bruce Archer said in the statement. “We are pursuing action against Mr. Longo for his purported dishonest conduct, and we will vigorously defend our hospital and physicians against the fraudulent claims he filed against us.”