A group of doctors is embroiled in a legal battle against a major healthcare provider over their removal from an emergency room on-call panel. The complaint, filed by Sohail Nasim and other medical professionals in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on September 29, 2022, accuses HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates of unfair business practices and retaliation.
The case centers around professional services agreements signed between 2019 and 2020, where the doctors agreed to provide emergent coverage for indigent patients at West Hills Hospital. These agreements included an arbitration clause that HCA Healthcare attempted to invoke when the doctors sued after being removed from the on-call panel in October 2021. The plaintiffs argue that their removal was part of a scheme to replace independent doctors with corporate-controlled physicians from Team Health Holdings, Inc., which allegedly provided kickbacks to HCA Healthcare.
According to the complaint, the doctors had longstanding admitting privileges at West Hills Hospital—some dating back to 1988—and were members of an on-call panel attending to unassigned emergency room patients. They allege that HCA Healthcare's actions deprived them of vested property rights without due process and were motivated by retaliation against whistleblowers who stood up for patient rights. The plaintiffs assert that this arrangement violates several laws, including Business and Professions Code section 17200 et seq., Health and Safety Code section 1278.5, Government Code section 12653, and the Cartwright Act.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages, statutory penalties, punitive damages, declaratory relief, injunctive relief including restoration of their ER on-call panel rights, among other remedies. Their argument hinges on the claim that their hospital privileges and on-call panel membership existed long before the professional services agreements were signed and thus should not be subject to arbitration clauses within those agreements.
Representing the plaintiffs are attorneys from The Law Offices of J. Grant Kennedy. Defendants are represented by Barnes & Thornburg LLP for Team Health Holdings, Inc., and Theodora Oringher PC for HCA Healthcare entities. Judge Virginia Keeney presided over the case under Case ID No. 22VECV01444.