Hamby v. Health Mgmt. Assocs. – May 2015 (Summary)

TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE/STATE DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT

Hamby v. Health Mgmt. Assocs.
No. CV-14-667 (Ark. Ct. App. May 6, 2015)

The Court of Appeals of Arkansas affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court’s dismissal of a physician’s claims, including tortious interference and violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“DTPA”), against a health system, holding that the physician had sufficiently alleged facts to support his claims. The physician was employed by a group that provided emergency medical services at one of the health system’s hospitals. The physician alleged that the health system was engaged in a scheme to increase profits at the hospital by requiring emergency department physicians to unnecessarily and improperly increase patient admissions and medical testing. According to the physician’s complaint, the health system pressured his employer to terminate his employment because he refused to comply with the alleged scheme.

On appeal of the lower court’s dismissal of the physician’s claim, the court of appeals determined that the physician sufficiently alleged his claims for tortious interference and violations of the DTPA. The court of appeals held that the physician’s allegations that the health system was disappointed with the hospital’s admission numbers, the employer began chastising the emergency-department physicians at the hospital for missing opportunities to order additional billable testing, and the physician was subject to quality reviews of his charts and eventually terminated for what were characterized by the health system as “low ER metrics” were enough to support his claims at the motion to dismiss stage.