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In a phone interview Tuesday, Bea said many employees at Mercyhealth are stunned as the company has learned more details of an apparent fraudulent billing scheme between an unnamed advertising broker and Bortner that Bea said appears to have been taking place since 2015.

BeaÃÛèÖÊÓƵ interview came a day after ÃÛèÖÊÓƵ obtained and reported on an internal memo from Bea to employees that Bortner—MercyhealthÃÛèÖÊÓƵ former vice president of marketing and public relations—had been fired for playing a role in the alleged fraud.

Bea told ÃÛèÖÊÓƵ on Tuesday that the companyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ findings have been referred to the U.S. AttorneyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ Western District Office in Madison after Mercyhealth officials received information late last week that “confirmed the existence of fraud.â€�

Bea declined to explain how Mercyhealth turned up the suspected fraud, but he said it appears to have involved a third-party advertising vendor for Mercyhealth. Bea indicated the vendor bundles or “aggregates� packages of advertising products for other print and billboard media companies and then sells the ad products at volume pricing to companies such as Mercyhealth.

Under the scheme that Bea says Bortner was involved in, the advertising broker “inflated� invoices for media advertising packages that Mercyhealth bought. Bea said Mercyhealth believes Bortner signed off on the allegedly fraudulent invoices, which resulted in Mercyhealth paying outsized rates for advertising.

Bea said Mercyhealth believes Bortner received financial “kickbacks�—payments to her from the vendor which shared a portion of profits generated through the allegedly inflated advertising billings.

Bea declined to name the vendor Mercyhealth believes was involved, but he said the so-called scheme appears to have spanned at least five years.

Along with launching a third-party audit of its marketing and invoicing practices, Mercyhealth is now severing ties with the vendor.

ItÃÛèÖÊÓƵ not clear how many allegedly fraudulent billings Mercyhealth paid out, but Bea said a Mercyhealth employee with BortnerÃÛèÖÊÓƵ executive authority typically would be allowed to sign off on $10,000 in invoices at any given time.

Bea said that means the alleged scheme likely would have had to roll out over a long period for Mercyhealth to amass $3 million in losses. He called such fraudulent practices “not uncommon,â€� but he said itÃÛèÖÊÓƵ the first time the company has been experienced such a financial loss.

In similar schemes, Bea said itÃÛèÖÊÓƵ common to “have two people, including one on the outside, one on the inside.â€�

“ThatÃÛèÖÊÓƵ why for this kind of money ($3 million), it took a lot of years,â€� Bea said, and “a lot of small invoices.â€�

A spokeswoman for the U.S. AttorneyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ Western Wisconsin District office on Tuesday said the federal law enforcement agency doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations or cases. She said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the U.S. Attorney was looking into fraud at Mercyhealth.

Bea said he has not heard an update from the U.S. AttorneyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ office on MercyhealthÃÛèÖÊÓƵ complaint of fraud.

Bea said itÃÛèÖÊÓƵ possible some of the media outfits that had sold advertising products through the vendor are local companies. But he said if the alleged fraud was similar to other kickback schemes he has heard of that involve a third-party vendor, itÃÛèÖÊÓƵ likely local companies would have been unaware the vendor was inflating advertising invoices to siphon extra money from Mercyhealth.

Even as Mercyhealth looks inward on its own processes to learn how $3 million in fraud could have happened under an executiveÃÛèÖÊÓƵ watch, Bea believes MercyhealthÃÛèÖÊÓƵ invoicing practices “meet or exceedâ€� industry standards.

Bea said in the interview Tuesday and in his internal memo to employees that it appears patient care was not impacted by the alleged fraud.

Bortner was a 30-year Mercyhealth employee who Bea said started out as a marketing clerk and grew her career at the Janesville health care company to become the marketing departmentÃÛèÖÊÓƵ leader and one of the companyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ top executives.

He said Bortner, along with some other longtime employees, have seen Mercyhealth grow into a regional powerhouse with more than a half-dozen full-scale hospitals and a growing presence in clinics spread over a large swath of rural, urban and suburban communities in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

He said Bortner was well-known in Janesville through her work at Mercyhealth and as a civic volunteer.

“We’re just extremely, profoundly disappointed by this. Obviously, she (Bortner) has been such a long-term employee, and Barb was a big personality at Mercy. And so thatÃÛèÖÊÓƵ why I think me and all of our staff at Mercy, the Mercy family, really feels betrayed by this,â€� Bea said. “Because it hasn’t ever happened before.â€�