Doctors Go Unpaid for a Month of Work

About 10 emergency physicians still haven’t been paid for the shifts they worked in April at two hospitals in New Hampshire, staffing firm owners told MedPage Today.

They’re owed nearly $140,000 for hours worked at Lakes Region General Hospital and Franklin Regional Hospital — part of the former LRGHealthcare, which went bankrupt and was bought out by Concord Hospital, with new ownership taking over on May 1.

Late Monday afternoon, a former board chair of LRGHealthcare published a letter to the editor in The Laconia Daily Sun stating that payment had been initiated — but the physicians said the funds still had not appeared in their account.

“This was a way to assure our services, then in retrospect say, ‘Your payment isn’t coming,'” said Joel Hansford, MD, a partner at physician-owned staffing firm EM-Staff. “There was absolutely no notice this was going to occur so that we could decide proactively if we wanted to risk providing our services. By the time we found out, it was too late. We had 10 doctors who were not going to be paid.”

“A handful of these physicians are doing either all or most of their hours for us only at these facilities,” Hansford added. “That’s all of their income. They were really affected.”

Matt Warden, MD, founder of EM-Staff, told MedPage Today that he reached out to LRGHealthcare leadership in October when the company filed for bankruptcy and was assured that his company would continue to be paid regularly. EM-Staff was indeed compensated every month until April, he said.

When that month’s invoice went unpaid at the end of May, Warden reached out and was told he must file a claim in bankruptcy court within 24 hours in order to collect the funds.

New owner Concord Hospital, which purchased LRGHealthcare out of bankruptcy, told MedPage Today that any outstanding invoices or bills from prior to when their ownership commenced on May 1 should be referred to LRGHealthcare estate manager Nixon Peabody.

The doctors filed a claim for payment and the claims process is being followed, Chris Browning, a partner at Nixon Peabody involved in the case, acknowledged in a phone call with MedPage Today. Partner Christopher Desiderio subsequently said in an email to MedPage Today that the payments had been made.

Hansford and Warden said they had reached out to past and current leadership to get the invoice paid but received little response. Technically, Concord Hospital is not on the hook for the payment, because they didn’t assume ownership until May 1, they said.

However, “we thought the new ownership could reach out and say, you keep the place open, we’ll see what we can do to make it right,” Hansford told MedPage Today.

“We feel we did extraordinary due diligence to pursue this through normal channels before going to the news and seeking a larger ethical judgment from the community,” Warden added.

Before the dispute occurred, EM-Staff had already signed a new contract with the new owners at Concord Hospital, which started on May 1, so they are obligated to continue to provide services. “July and August are scheduled, and we will continue to provide services,” Warden said. The company has also been paid for May and June, he added.

Warden said EM-Staff takes the “conscious capitalism” approach to doing business, which, as he explains it, places greater value on all stakeholders in an industry. While greater corporate involvement in healthcare has led to physicians being devalued, he said, their model ensures good compensation and more autonomous work environments.

Hansford told MedPage Today late Monday that even if the money does arrive in the account soon, he’s disappointed in lengths he had to go to to get the payments.

“All we knew is that we may or may not ever get paid,” Hansford said. “This doesn’t erase that we weren’t paid as we should have been. It’s almost worse that they only responded to [media] pressure to finally get things in order.”