An antitrust lawsuit alleging North Carolina's two largest academic medical systems agreed not to hire each other's employees was partially settled by one of the defendants, The Daily Tar Heel reports.
In a settlement with preliminary court approval, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill agreed to not enter similar no-hire agreements with other universities, terminate any current agreements and cooperate by providing witnesses, documents and data in the ongoing lawsuit against the other defendant, Durham, N.C.-based Duke University. Once the lawsuit against Duke is settled, litigation against UNC will end, according to the report.
The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by former Duke Professor Danielle Seaman, MD, who alleges UNC's chief of cardiothoracic imaging told her she was passed over for a job as a radiology professor at UNC due to an agreement between the two medical schools to not hire each other's faculty, according to the report. This agreement was not known to employees and effectively reduced pay, the lawsuit alleged.
Duke opposed the settlement with the litigation group, which includes anyone who was a member of the faculty or medical staff at either academic medical center between 2012 and 2016. The university is drafting a reply and allowing the court to make a decision on the case, according to the report.
Lawyers told The Daily Tar Heel they expect the case to close early next year.
Read the full story here.
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