Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health amended its lawsuit against Charlotte-based Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants and its parent company May 7, alleging the group's targeted advertisement campaign has caused the health system to lose patients.
Here are six notes about the case.
1. Atrium Health terminated its nearly 40-year contract with SAC earlier this year, claiming SAC was not willing to lower costs or introduce a new operating model to increase savings. The contract, which expires June 30, was instead awarded to Charlotte-based Scope Anesthesia of North Carolina.
2. SAC filed a lawsuit against Atrium March 26, alleging the health system and its new anesthesiology provider stole trade secrets and used that information to poach the contract from SAC. The group alleged Atrium canceled its contract with SAC after the group refused to consent to Atrium and Scope's plan to impose substantial cuts to the number of anesthesiologists at the health system's various facilities.
3. Atrium filed a countersuit against SAC and its parent company, Sunrise, Fla.-based Mednax, April 4, and told Becker's Hospital Review in a previous statement: "Ultimately, we were not comfortable in partnering with Mednax, a company that has workforce instability, among other issues. This decision supports our priorities to provide high quality care to every patient who walks through our door."
4. In its amended filing, obtained by Becker's, Atrium Health cited Mednax's decision to increase "the intensity of a fear-mongering smear campaign against Atrium Health to try to bully Atrium Health into reversing its decision to end its relationship with Mednax affiliate Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants, and give badly needed good news to its shareholders."
The health system also noted SAC "has publicized false and misleading information designed to undermine efforts by Scope Anesthesia of North Carolina ... to supplant Mednax in Atrium Health facilities. … Mednax's intensified attacks form additional bases for liability and for punitive damages because of this malicious, willful and wanton misconduct."
5. Atrium Health also noted in its press release about the amended filing, "Going back to the negotiating table with Mednax is not an option, since this would not be in the best interest of Atrium Health patients."
6. In a statement to Becker's May 7, Mednax said the Atrium's "legal action and propagandized rhetoric today are nothing new."
"Our public information campaign is designed to help patients make informed healthcare decisions. It is not unreasonable to question whether patient care and safety will be affected as a result of this huge change — especially when the new provider company has been in existence less than four months. Changing anesthesiology providers in an irresponsible manner does not make sense if quality and patient safety — for which both Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants (SAC) and Carolinas Health System have received national recognition during our partnership — are Atrium's highest concern.
"In the face of what we view as Atrium Health's reckless business behaviors and rhetoric, we will continue to our raise concerns as physicians about the system's aggressive, monopolistic business practices and their negative effects on patients, the medical community and the region."
To access Atrium's Health's full statement, click here.