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STA'II] OFNORTH DAKOTA OF COI.JN'I'Y BURT,EICH

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oath as follows: I, Barbara Frohlich, being first duly swom, stateon I. married,and the nrotherof tbur My namc is BarbaraFrohlich, t am 46 yearsold, tninor childrenUniversity of from Bismarck High Schottl-in1983,,goingon to atlenf I graduated and Medical Mary, graduatingwith BS clegrlcsin Math./NaturalScienocComposite in TechnologY, 1988' (wsl) in July 2005, having I bcgatr work at workforce safbty & lnsurance Thomas solberg, Medical interviewed with, among others, my current supervisor, ServiccsDirectot. which latcr was changed t was hired with the title of "Proviclcr RelationsSpeoialist" duties being to serveasa liaison my to ..provider RelationsRepresentative"; primary WSI anclthe rnedical community' betwc-en working part-time enrplOyee' Since I began cmploynrent. I have beena permancnt twenty hoirs a wiek, with full health and welfare benefits. rcgular perfornrance During my nearly sevenyearstenurewith WSl, I have received and evaluations never perfbrmance reviews and I have alwaysreceivedaboveaverage kind' flny negative conunentsor disciplinary action of any normal dutics' when a on August 17, 201l, I was working at my clesk,doing my claims a juster (CA) l was familiar with stoppcdby my oflice' Agent actingin his/her a I can(andwill if aske<lby Brucauof Crimind Investigative that shedoesnot wish otficial capacity) providi the nameof this CA, but I am aware nratlepublic, if possihle' to have her nzune my seeking input asto cA had a copy of a "notepad"entryand showcdit to me, or noq o "notepad" appropriatc whether someof the contentof the rrotcpadentry wzur by WSI employeesinto.a WSI clainrant's file' cntry is a computer entry that is made recsived a contnct from an concurrentwith action on a claim; lbr exampl"' if o CA in a'hotepad" entry' u-pfoy.r,-ttte specificsof that contactwould be included 'this ..notepad,'entries(with somenuurowexceptionsthat do not apply to the notepad All file al WSl and are madefbr enuT in euestion)are part ot,f.r" indivitlual cliimant's irrtended to be available to the the purpose of recorcling actions on a claim anrJ claimantand any claimant'sattorney'upon request'

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would frequently ln my work as a liaisonbetwcen wsl and the medicalcommunity,I enter into type in computer entries regarding my contactsthut woulcl automatically time of the tiri particular claimant's fiG as a;notep4d[" enQ, showing the date and enfry and the person making the entry. 'l'he a notepadEntrythat thc CA showedme on August 17,201l was madeby "nurse the whEther casemsnager" (who are WSI employees)and the CA wanted-myopinion and forth commurrications notepad c,lntained too detailed a rel'erenceto thc back betwcon the CA and the nurse casemanagor' and that I readthe notcpad entry and statedI harJno concernswith the wording of it with the CA, who left the copy of the notepadentry was the end of my Convercation on my desk when she left' 'l'he b**' next morning, the sameCA who had shown me the notepadenry the t{ Kim Ehli' cameto my ,lesk in the morning, informing me that the Claims Director, I had seenand talkod about' was going to tlelete the notepadenu'ythat the CA and addiie tn"gtrcim Ehli told her the deletion would occur becausethe notepadentry "weakensour [WSI] Position". 24,20t2'the As I subsequcntlywrote in my letter to thc Attorney Generalof January the frrllowing expres$es conccrnsI had: ,.1 interpreted some of the general messages convcyed by the Nwse the Case Manager ip the notepad&sthe following: she was illbrmed decision hal beenmadet6 rleny the clainr per a statling the adjusterhad of with legal; shewas inquiring aboutthe abandonment the plan to have Director [Dr. Vilella] to gain his with thc WSI Medical a disou.ssion regarrJingthe IME [hdependent Medical Evaluation] report opinion rty to the opinions of the neating providers]; she [which *i "ont notcd it was communicatedto the adjusterby a WSI attorneythatthere was no need to staffthe claim with the Mcdical Director f<rra given reason; and she Seemedto exprcss her uncertainry about how to document this deviation to ensurethe future ability to track the actions takgn."

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was BecauseI felt that deletion of the notcpad entry undcr thcse circumstances within wronB, I took thc tbllowing steps,in orier, to have the situation addressed WSI: A, Rcsources on August 24,2011, I visited with Bob McConnell, Human WSI's f)irector, to obtain infbrmation about submitting a complaint via emailed me the "Fraud I lotl ine" and, fbll owing that meeting,the HR Direstor me to foltow through by visiting with wsl Deputy link ;rnd "n"o,,rug"d ExecutiveDirector, Clare Carlson'

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him of my concern on August 26, 2011,I met with clarc carlson to infbrm instance ,egardiirg the deletion oflthe notepadentry and, also,horv Lfclt this pressue put on WSI's Medical Director' to reiated b-ack what t believe to be WSI "internal audif' Dr. Vilella, approximatelyayeal before(the subsequent was initially brought by'l'om Solborg,Medical ,lisclosedthat this Pressure I had no ServicesDirector, and Timothy Wahlin, Chief of Injury Services; meeting, first hand knowledge of their involvement at that time). During *ris deletednotepadentry and he said I askedCarlsonif he wanteda copy crt'the up to his he did. Within the hour, I walked a hard copy o I the deletednotepad and set in on this dcsk. oft-rce meet The ncxt Monday, August 29, Clare Carlson contactedme via email to building. an him in ConlbrenccRoom 2A, locatodon the secondfloor of the room not normully usedby WSI staff' out of the way cont'erence a Curlson told me that, after thinking over the weekend, instead of filing to claim with WSI'S "Iiraud I{otline". I should "consider" writing a letter would be "saferond easier" that WSI Director Bryan Kliptbi instead,because HOtline" if I did not get the "gutcomc" he said and that I could usethe'iFraud I "wantgd". Klipfel Irr that meeting,Clare Carlson informed me that WSI Director Bryan Chief was strongly inlluenced by Timothy Wahlin trnclJghn Halvorson' two for opcratilgbf icer, and that bireqtgr Klipfel rclied heavily uporrthose that I was not diiection and, upon hearirrgthat, I informed Clare Carlson the notepad confident that il'I wrote tlireAor Kipfel aboutthe deletion of remedial action taken' cntxy,the mattcr would be properly invcstigated ancl and the on August 3 I , 201 I , I filed my report of the deleted notepadentry on by issueoJ.'pressurc WSI munagement Dr. Vilella with the WSI "Fraud Ilotline". with him in On Septcmber2, 201t Dircctor Klipfel called me to mect of my "Fraud confErence Roorn 2A, informing me that as a consequencc detcrmine Hotline" report, he was going to oirjer a special"internal oudit" to me at that meeting there the l'ucts and report bacX to him; Klipfel assured would be 1o retaliationagainstme for filing thc "F'raudIIoOine" repon' the situ'ation Also, at the same meeting, f)irector Klipfel antl I discussed thathe oboutwsl Medical Director,Dr. Vilclla, and Dr. Vilella's complaints his medical reviews of tiom twq of had been pressuredto delete passagcs xlipiet questioningexactly whut is a "record" claimants' cases,with Directoi within thg meaning of the oriminal statute that prohibits destruction ol'a ' public record by a public employee

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At the conclusion of my neeting with Klipfel, thercwas no doubt in my mind ..internal audit" w,ruld bc focusing, among other things, upon the that the enry rhat had beenordereddelctcd by Claims Director Ehli specific notepa.d that I had reporteclto the "Ftaud Hotline"' ()1 Septenrber 7,2011, I was contactedby WSI employeesMicole Kvas' lnternal Autlit Director zurd Krisi Kunz, Internal Auditor, who had bcen by appointecl Klipfel to conductthe "internal audit" as Director Klipf'el called it. At this September7 rneeting.the two "internal auditors" nied to convinceme ro separatethc notepaddeletion nratter from the issue of the pressurcput to from two of his medicalreviews;t saidI bcar on Dr. Vilella to delotepassages the would not irgreebecause two were intertwined. whetherthc questiorred 7,201 I meeting,I specifically Onthe sameSoptembur ..intemal auditi would addressthe notepad which I reported through the ..FraudHotline." Micole Kvas told mcthatthey ("internal auditors") will do a ..random"sample,but will bc sue to inclurJc notepadthat I rcported. the On Septcmber15, 201 I t mct with the "internal auditors" at my rcquest, was uskirrg them if they were going to insurc that thc notepad entry that iniured would be put back in the rccord so it would be availableto the cleleted the worker in the ev*nt of appealing denial ofhiVher claim, but I wasgivenno that would be done and to this day, the notepadentry hal not been assurance restoredto the claimant'sfile. Thc final "intenral audit" report was issuedon October25,201| andit became obvious to me that the rcport was not a good lbith cftbn to addresseither the notepad deletion or the pressurebrought to bear on Dr. Vilella and I can explain this in f'ull detail to any authorizedBCI investigator who asks. Three days later, HR Director McCormcll came to see me, unannounced, inquiring of my reaction to the "internal audit" and I told him of my to dissatisfaction,whereupon he statedthat "the report is final"; "you need continue to visit hereandthere, acceptthe outcomc and move on", and "if you Room,away it will getyou in trouble." (Again.this was in the 2A Conference from anYother WSI cmPloYees).

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and Because it was obvious to me that the "internal audit" was deeply flawed' Attorney intentionally so in my opinion, Lfelt compelled to addressthe matter to the Ceneral,writing a letter on November 18,2011'

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(a assistant fiom the AttorneyGeneral's a On Novenber 23, 201I , I received response non-lawyer) stating that the matter was "internal" with WSI and that the AG office had no'Jurisdiction". I Following up on the letter from the AG's assistant, tried, in good faith' to again addrcssthe matter with WSI, by writing a letter to Direotor Klipfel and I did so on December22"21ll (I will provide a copy of that letter,as I have to the AC's office, and I hereby incorporateit into my affidavit and affrrm as true those mattersthat are barsedupon my personal knowledge and that those not based on tny personal knowledge,are basedon informationand belief that I believeto be true)' of On Jangary25,2A12, I receiveda lettcr from Director Klipfel, the last paragraph which I believe was not only untrue, but also was an attempt to make a case for retaliation againstme f'or having broughtmy concemsto Director Klipfel's attention;I wrote a lbllow-up email to Klipfel explaining my disagreementwith his socusations and thanking him fbr his previous statcmentthat he (WSI) would not retaliateagainst me in any way. Realizing that there would be nothing firttrer done at WSI in any regardwith respeot the to my concemsrand having exhaustEd recommendationof the AG's assistantto I dctermined that I must bring the matter to the the again ur1clress matter intemally, prop.r authorities,and, therefore.wrote my joint letterto Attomcy GeneralSrcnehjem antlBnrleigh County StatcsAttorney Riha on January24,2012 (again, I incorporate that lettcr into this affidavit by reference,verifying that everything on my direct knowledge is true and that those mattersI have expressedbasedon information and beliefl I bclieveto be true). In the first pageof the "intemal autlit" repofr.,datedOctober 25,201 I it saysthat the ',scope"ofine review is from the datcsofJanuary 1,2010 throughOctober14,.201l. The notepadentry that I havc first hand knowledge was deleted by Claims Director I Ehli. as refsrencedabove, sometimein August of 201L Given that statement, I assumerlthat the "internal audit" was dealing specitically with the notepad entry knew, on tirst hand knowleclge,had been deleted (as discussedabove). I only later carne to realize, upon further reading, that thc deletion of the notepad cntry I in complaincdabout was not even addressed the "intemal audit" report,despitethe inclusive datesof the "scope" of the "audit': and the fact that I had becn informed that a major focus of the "intemal audit" was that very uotep:ld entry' On March I,2012, f)ircctor Klipfel wrote GovernorDalrymple, specificallystating that the ,'intemal audit" was called by Director Klipt'el directly as a result of the complaint I bart made regardingthe deletion of the notepadcntry. This statementis in the not true because deletion of the notepadentry was not addressed any regord'or even mentioned,in the "intemal aurJit"repoftthatDirector Klipf'cl statedhecalledfor that very purpose. I was told in November2011, by Micole Kvas,that the notepad entry that was delcted would not be restoredas their "special report" (not included or

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,.intemal audit" report) concluderlthat all the deletedinformation in mentioncd in the file. I reviewed tt, noi"pJ was "factually coveredi' in other areasof the claimant's with its conclusions the ..specialrcport", told ihe "hternal auditors" that I disagreed was deleted' and that ,"g*dl"s*, the notepadentry was still a "record" that uPon my acttralknowledge I swearthat the statemcntsI am making in this affrdavit are based statethat I believe those exceptthosethat are basedupon information ind belief and I affirmatively to statcments be true. BarbaraFrotrlich to be the

on thisJf ou,or ; i[ol

before mE, Barbara Frohlich, known to me , ,zl\z,appeared

persondescribedin tf,e foregoing affidavit'

J NATAL]E DA\TY NoteryPrrblb Ststcof NorthDaltota 9,2013 Fcb. Commladon

Exp[#: My Ccimmission

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