Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health fired back at its former anesthesiology services provider and filed a countersuit against the group's parent company, Sunrise, Fla.-based Mednax, April 4, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
Here are six things to know about Atrium's countersuit.
1. Atrium Health terminated its nearly 40-year contract with Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants 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. SAC's lawsuit, which seeks more than $25,000 in damages for SAC but does not disclose how much the organization's contract with Atrium was worth, mirrors concerns cited by SAC in an ad campaign and website the organization launched last month to protest Atrium's decision to switch anesthesiology providers.
4. In an April 5 statement to Becker's Hospital Review, Atrium said the countersuit was filed in response to Mednax's "frivolous lawsuit," and noted the company "has a history of suing others" and "sued 47 of its own anesthesiologists practicing at Atrium Health [in July 2017]. This lawsuit was filed shortly after the anesthesiologists reported Mednax to the North Carolina Medical Board."
"We are not alone in making the decision to end our relationship with Mednax," the statement continued. "In the past several months, other providers, such as Duke Raleigh (N.C.) Hospital has refused to renew with Mednax, as has Cone Health, the preeminent public healthcare system in Greensboro, N.C. 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."
5. SAC said in an April 5 statement to Becker's the goal of its lawsuit is to "protect the investments in patient care that have delivered great benefits to hundreds of thousands of Charlotte patients for nearly 40 years. Today's answer and counterclaim by Atrium are merely an attempt to distract from our serious claims."
"We are not surprised that Atrium would seek to defend itself through these legal actions, given its history of repeated adversarial behavior toward the medical community, and its own employees, throughout Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. We deny Atrium's assertions and look forward to presenting our case in Court, where we believe the facts will speak for themselves. In the meantime, we remain focused on providing the quality of care that our patients depend upon and deserve."
6. SAC's lawsuit is the second piece of legal action to hit Atrium Health in recent weeks. Mecklenburg Medical Group, an Atrium physician practice, filed a civil lawsuit against the health system April 2, alleging Atrium's "self-serving monopolistic and anticompetitive actions" presents a threat to physicians, leaving them unable to provide cost-efficient, high-quality care, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
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