An appeals court in Missouri recently overturned a lower court's order that required Mercy Springfield (Mo.) to pay $751,000 to a physician who claimed she was fired for raising concerns over the hospital's treatment and billing practices, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
Shanti Yerra, MD, who sued Mercy Springfield in 2013, claimed she repeatedly objected to unnecessary treatment and billing practices at Mercy, to no avail.
One instance of unnecessary treatment allegedly occurred in March 2012. According to Dr. Yerra's lawsuit, she admitted a patient for surgery to be performed by another physician. Although Dr. Yerra indicated the patient was cleared for surgery and did not require a cardiology consult, another physician called for the consult, resulting in increased charges to Medicare.
Dr. Yerra reported the incident to Mercy's manager of medical staff services and expressed that she would report "unnecessary treatment and billing practices to the proper authorities," according to the lawsuit. However, a subsequent internal investigation revealed the additional cardiology consultation did not result in unnecessary cost and was warranted, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
In August 2012, the health system's chair of internal medicine recommended Dr. Yerra keep her job "only if she would not make any more … public threats or criticism of healthcare delivery or her peers," according to the lawsuit.
Dr. Yerra was fired in January 2013, and she filed her wrongful termination lawsuit that same month.
In 2016, a jury ruled in favor of Dr. Yerra and ordered Mercy Springfield to pay her $1,000 in actual damages and $750,000 in punitive damages. The health system appealed the ruling.
In a 2-1 decision issued Oct. 11, the appeals court ruled in Mercy Springfield's favor.
"In short, Dr. Yerra failed to show that public policy forbade [the surgeon] to have a cardiologist confirm this heart-troubled patient's cardiac fitness for surgery," the majority decision written by Judge Daniel Scott said, according to the Springfield News-Leader. "If anything, Missouri law and public policy purported to protect [the surgeon] in seeking the 'second opinion or consultation' that Dr. Yerra tried to cancel and of which she later complained."
Dr. Yerra's attorney told the Springfield News-Leader he planned to ask for a rehearing or to have the case transferred to Missouri Supreme Court.
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