MY CANCER COST ME JOB

Suit: Sick med office targeted 43-year vet

growth — like leading the launch of an audiology department that proved to be a windfall.

Perlman’s suit claims the practice started a long muscling-out process more than two years ago “for her complaints of unlawful conduct” and it only increased when the company restructured itself and fell under new management.

In December 2014, she “explicitly objected to the company’s ongoing unlawful practice of falsely reporting revenues to the company’s employee doctors.” The revenues on surgeries and treatments were “falsely deflated” so that the pay doctors deserved went to the practice instead, the suit says.

When one of her superiors said she should “look for another job,” Perlman said, she got up to leave, showing she wasn’t scared.

Eventually, the practice’s board began shutting her out of meetings and discussions. They brought in people who tried to diminish Perlman’s role, she said.

Her salary was slashed — going to $150,000 from $375,000. The salary cut happened after she refused to fill out paperwork allegedly meant to “conceal the discriminatory motivation” behind a worker’s termination. Perlman said the worker had been fired for her disability.

Last December, Perlman got a cancer diagnosis. She went to work the day after a six-hour procedure. A few weeks later, her boss chewed her out for an insurance contribution error. He threatened to further slash her salary and talked about “performance concerns,” which she called “fabricated.”

Perlman said being fired was retaliation “because of my actions and because of my conditions and because of my age. They should be accountable. It’s not right. It’s disrespectful. It’s just not right.”