30 doctors file suit against medical group
30 doctors file suit against medical group
Thirty doctors in Los Angeles-based St. Joseph Medical Corp. recently filed a lawsuit against the medical group. The doctors claim that the group is robbing them of valuable patients and revenue by not allowing them to notify their patients when they leave the group. They are seeking general damages of more than $2 million, and punitive damages.
Representatives from the physician group say that the company violated state law by adding a provision that prohibits the doctors from notifying their patients when they end their contracts with St. Joseph. However, lawyers representing the medical group claim that health plans will not allow doctors to tell their patients to follow them, and they have become stricter in enforcing this policy. Patients receive letters notifying them of the change from the medical group or the health plan.
An Orange County Superior Court judge refused the doctors' request for an order temporarily restraining the group from terminating physicians who haven't signed a new group contract. The plaintiff has filed an amended complaint.
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