New lawsuit alleges Duke is working to ‘destroy’ private physicians group
Duke University and its health system are being sued for allegedly working to “destroy” a physician group associated with the institutions and force privately employed doctors to work directly for Duke.
The lawsuit was filed in Durham County Superior Court on Monday by Eugene Moretti, MD, an anesthesiologist, on behalf of the Private Diagnostic Clinic, the News & Observer recently reported. PDC is a for-profit company that employs physicians who work and do research at Duke University and its associated medical facilities.
Duke has repeatedly tried to take over PDC, according to the lawsuit, but the sides couldn’t come to an agreement. Now, the university is allegedly using its recently established Duke Faculty Practice to force clinicians who perform research to join. Those members have until July of this year to do so, but PDC says the transition would cut 400 of its 1,850 doctors and put the clinic out of business.
Furthermore, the transition would revoke physicians’ independence and likely pay them less for more work going forward, the suit says.
“It seems clear that one of Duke’s overarching objectives here is to terminate PDC by taking over substantially all of PDC’s assets and operations,” the suit reads. “Viewed from that perspective, the Duke employment offers—if accepted by all or substantially all of PDC’s Physicians—would amount to Duke acquiring PDC for a purchase price of $0.”
A Duke spokesman told the news outlet that the lawsuit “has no basis in fact or law,” underscoring that the university plans to fight it.
Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s chief communications officer, further told the News & Observer that the university and PDC have been discussing plans to better align their goals.
“The lawsuit filed by Dr. Moretti, who is not a representative of PDC leadership, is an attempt to obstruct these discussions about alignment and impede Duke’s ability to provide the highest-quality healthcare services to our patients,” Schoenfeld wrote in an email to the news outlet.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.