A former employee of a nonprofit Monsey health clinic claims she was fired for singling out possible misuses of federal funds.
Johanna Amar-Eichenwald accused Community Medical and Dental Care Inc. of retaliation, in a complaint filed on Feb. 26 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
On her first day, the complaint states, “it became alarmingly clear to her that she was stepping into an institution operating well outside the bounds of medical, ethical, and legal standards.”
The clinic did not reply to a message asking for responses to her allegations. According to an independent auditor’s opinion, in 2024 the clinic complied with all requirements “that could have a direct or material effect on each of its major federal programs.”
Community Medical, also known as Monsey Family Medical Center, says on its website that its mission “is to enhance the lives of the community we serve by delivering the highest quality comprehensive and preventive medical, dental and behavioral health services.”
The clinic recorded $20.2 million in revenues in 2024, according to its nonprofit tax return, including nearly $1.3 million in federal grants.
Mendel Hoffman, the president and chief executive, and Chana Amsel, the chief financial officers, also are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Hoffman was paid nearly $1.2 million in wages and other compensation in 2024, and Amsel was paid more than $300,000.
Amar-Eichenwald, of Englewood, New Jersey, joined the clinic as director of clinical services in July 2024.
She claims that federal grant funds were deposited into an account labeled “Special 2,” transferred to two bank accounts, and withdrawn nearly weekly in increments of $5,000, $25,000, and $50,000.
The withdrawals, she alleges, were not accounted for in budget records, raising “serious suspicions that federal funds were being used on private expenses.”
According to the independent auditor’s report, in 2024 the clinic received $1,258,474 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
When Amar-Eichenwald told Hoffman about her findings, he allegedly removed her access to financial records.
She says she shifted attention to clinical care issues and found that the clinic had no medical director, as required for federal funding. Instead, a secretary with no medical training was listed as the compliance officer “to circumvent federal oversight.”
She alleges that a patient broker was paid $8,000 to $15,000 a month in kickbacks to steer patients to the clinic. And she claims that male employees were paid tens of thousands of dollars more than women in identical roles.
“Rather than investigate or rectify the inequities,” the complaint states, Hoffman and Amsel “retaliated and questioned her loyalty.”
On Jan. 4, 2025, she was fired.
Amar-Eichenwald says she was fired in retaliation for disclosing activity that poses danger to public health and safety.
She is demanding payment for lost wages and benefits, and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
