McCullough v. Gateway Health LLC

VICTORIA D. MCCULLOUGH v. GATEWAY HEALTH LLC

Civil Action No. 20-1595-MAK

United States District Court, D. Delaware

September 21, 2021

MEMORANDUM

KEARNEY, J.

A black woman suing her former employer for race discrimination and alleged retaliation leading to her quitting her job just weeks after a pay raise and bonus must adduce evidence of an adverse employment action motivated by racial animus and some form of retaliation. The woman alleges her supervisor unfairly audited her work because of her race prompting her to file an EEOC charge and, after the director of her department learned of her charge, the director created a retaliatory hostile work environment. The alleged retaliatory hostile work environment led her to quit her job when her employer asked for a meeting to discuss a coaching form and she would not attend because she feared meeting with the director would lead to her termination.

Our review of the developed record following over five months of discovery confirms there are no genuine issues of material fact and we dismiss the former employee's claims of race discrimination and retaliation leading to her adverse employment action (her decision to quit her job) rather than attend a human resources meeting. We grant the employer's motion for summary judgment warranted as a matter of law.

I. Undisputed Facts^[1]

Victoria McCullough sues her former employer Gateway Health LLC^[2] alleging it discriminated against her on the basis of her African American race and retaliated against her after she filed a charge of racial discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.^[3]

Ms McCullough began work at Gateway Health as a Clinical Care Coordinator - Medical Case Manager on December 8 2014.^[4] Gateway Health provides administrative services to Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware Health Options, Inc. with regard to its managed healthcare plans under Delaware's Medicaid program.^[5] Highmark required Gateway meet certain service level standards.^[6] If Gateway's performance fell below an established service level standard, the contract required it to notify Highmark of the deficiency.^[7] Once Gateway notified Highmark of a deficiency, Highmark could request a “corrective action plan” requiring, among other things, Gateway to describe the deficiency, its cause, remediation of the deficiency, financial impact, member, provider and/or regulator impact, and date of compliance to the service level standard.^[8]If Highmark approved the corrective action plan, Gateway implemented the plan and provided Highmark with progress reports in satisfying the corrective action.^[9]

Ms. McCullough primarily worked from her home and rarely or never went into Gateway's Wilmington office except for meetings.^[10] Ms. McCullough worked in Gateway's “SNIP pod.” The parties do not describe a “SNIP pod” is and Ms. McCullough could not, at her deposition, explain what “SNIP” means.^[11] But our review of the record leads us to find “SNIP” appears to be an acronym for “special needs integrated pod.”^[12] The “SNIP” pod handled patient members with two or more chronic illnesses.^[13] Ms. McCullough analogized a “pod” to a team, with different pods or teams assigned to different medical areas for patient members like behavioral health, pediatrics, and maternity.^[14]

Ms. McCullough's performance reviews from 2015 to 2018.

Ms. McCullough challenges the conduct of supervisors Jessica Morgan and Carolyn Stahl.^[15] Jessica Morgan supervised Ms. McCullough from September 2016 to October 2018.^[16]Tracy Wilhelm supervised Ms. McCullough from October 28, 2018 to March 2019.^[17] Carolyn Stahl became Gateway's Director of Care Management beginning in March 2018.^[18]

Although the parties do not explain Gateway's reporting structure, we infer Ms. McCullough directly reported to Ms. Morgan and, later, Ms. Wilhelm, who in turn reported to Ms. Stahl when she became the Director of Care Management in March 2018. Ms. Morgan and Director Stahl are Caucasian women. Ms. McCullough is an African American woman.

Director Stahl rated Ms. McCullough's overall performance as a “3 - Met All” in the 2015 performance review.^[19] The parties do not offer a ratings scale or rubric nor do they explain the details of such a review. Ms. Morgan rated Ms. McCullough's overall performance as a “3 -Met All” for the 2016 year.^[20] The parties fail to explain this rating. The parties do not provide us with detail aside from a one-page document containing Ms. McCullough's overall performance reviews for 2015 and 2016.

Ms. Morgan reviewed Ms. McCullough's performance for the 2017 year. We have a more fulsome report of Ms. McCullough's performance in 2017. Ms. Morgan assessed Ms. McCullough's performance as “on track.”^[21] Gateway required Ms. McCullough to maintain a case load of 45 to 50 members to meet productivity standards to be considered “on track.”

Ms. Morgan commented favorably on Ms. McCullough's overall evaluation, including: “Victoria is diligent and thorough in her role as Care Coordinator . . . She is always willing to accept new members and assignments. She is empathetic to member issues and is pre-emptive in helping them overcome barriers. Victoria is persistent when seeking out the best resources and care for members. … Victoria has been an integral part of the SNIP pod. She is a valuable source or information ... [She] has achieved excellent outcomes for members producing many success stories. [She] sets an admirable example of best practice and expectations for the role of Care coordinator. She is a positive asset to our organization and I look forward to her collaboration in the New Year. ... Thank you Victoria for all you have done to support your team and Health Option members.”^[22]

Ms. Wilhelm reviewed Ms. McCullough's 2018 performance.^[23] Ms. Wilhelm assessed Ms. McCullough's performance as “on track” and commented favorably on Ms. McCullough's overall performance, including: “Victoria is a seasoned and proficient Care Coordinator. ... Victoria is an integral part of the SNIP POD . . . Victoria has achieved excelled outcomes and produced many success stories. Victoria[, ] I am looking forward to collaborating with you in 2018 and I would like you to cover me as Supervisor at times . . . .”^[24]

Gateway paid Ms. McCullough a raise and bonus every year of her employment and paid an extra bonus in 2018.^[25] Gateway never demoted Ms. McCullough.^[26]

Ms. Morgan audits Ms. McCullough's cases under the Highmark contract in 2017 and 2018.

Gateway also audited the cases of care coordinators like Ms. McCullough to meet its service obligations to Highmark. Ms. Morgan audited one of Ms. McCullough's cases in April 2017 commenting, “Good Work” and assigned a score of 100%.^[27] Ms. Morgan audited another of Ms. McCullough's cases in May 2017 commenting, “see late tasks with missing barrier” but nevertheless assigned Ms. McCullough a score of 100%.^[28] Ms. Morgan again audited Ms. McCullough's cases in November 2017 commenting, “I did not find the med rec and where you contacted pcp . . . if I missed let me know and I will fix this” and assigned Ms. McCullough a score of 95%.^[29]

Ms. Morgan audited Ms. McCullough's cases on April 5, 2018 for the first quarter of 2018. Ms. Morgan noted her “[o]nly concern is [Ms. McCullough] had a call into the 24 hour nurse line and she wasn't called back on 3/26/18” but noted “[n]ice care plans” and assigned Ms. McCullough a score of 100%.^[30]

Gateway's Senior Clinical Training Specialist Linzi Hamilton also audited Ms. McCullough's charts. Senior Clinical Training Specialist Hamilton emailed Director of Care Management Stahl on April 6, 2018 to advise she and Ms. Morgan “are having some issues regarding Victoria [McCullough]. We did a mini queue scrub on her to try to find a chart appropriate to audit and discovered many documentation compliance and timeliness issues.”^[31]Training Specialist Hamilton suggested she and Ms. Morgan “mee[t] with [Ms. McCullough] to review her queue and try to leverage what the issue is to help her be successful for future audits” hoping “if we went thru [sic] each chart and talked about what the expectation was referencing our workflows and audit tool, [Ms. McCullough] would get the picture.”^[32] Gateway does not explain how Ms. Morgan audited Ms. McCullough's cases from the first quarter on April 5, 2018 assigning a 100% score with only one concern noted but the very next day Training Specialist Hamilton advised Director Stahl she and Ms. Morgan “are having issues” with Ms. McCullough after discovering “many documentation compliance and timeliness issues.” Ms. McCullough does not allege Training Specialist Hamilton's actions are racially motivated.

The same day Training Specialist Hamilton notified Director Stahl of Ms. McCullough's charting issues, Ms. McCullough asked Director Stahl to be moved to another pod.^[33] Ms. McCullough told Director Stahl she believed Ms. Morgan looked through her queue and “tried to find the only case she could give me a bad score on” and Ms. Morgan “is trying to fire me.”^[34]

Director Stahl denied the requested transfer.^[35] Ms. McCullough alleges she reported Ms. Morgan's racially motivated unfair audits to Director Stahl and to Gateway's Human Resources department.^[36] She alleges Gateway's Human Resources department essentially ignored her claims regarding Ms. Morgan's alleged racially motivated actions and instead instructed her to “listen to” Ms. Morgan.^[37]

Ms McCullough now swears she believed Ms. Morgan performed racially motivated “unfair audits” because Ms. Morgan did not give Ms. McCullough the allotted thirty days to complete tasks on the chart.^[38] Ms. McCullough did not recall the number of Ms. Morgan's unfair...