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Monsour settles with drug firm
Thursday, August 17, 2000 By Ernie Hoffman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
An agreement between financially troubled Monsour Medical Center and its pharmaceutical supplier was unsealed yesterday by a Westmoreland County judge, who said potential patients have a right to know about their health-care providers.
The agreement between Monsour and Omnicare Pharmacy Pennsylvania West, and the lawsuit that prompted it, were sealed last week by Common Pleas Judge Gary P. Caruso at both parties' request.
According to the settlement, Monsour owes more than $848,000 for past purchases and about $190,000 for its current inventory of drugs from Omnicare. It has agreed to pay that off by making weekly payments of $17,500 to the company.
The hospital in Jeannette also agreed to return a computer and printer to the Hempfield company and to assume the leases on two dispensing machines used in the pharmacy.
Omnicare sued Monsour on Aug. 9. It claimed the hospital became delinquent on its account in July 1999, then agreed to a new payment plan but defaulted again in March.
The company claimed it sent Monsour a termination notice in July, after which the hospital changed the lock on the door to its pharmacy office.
Omnicare, formerly known as Gatti LTC Services, has been Monsour's exclusive provider of pharmaceutical and related services since January 1998.
Omnicare also claimed that Robert O Lampl, a Monsour attorney, said the hospital might file for bankruptcy relief.
But yesterday, Lampl did not answer a reporter's question about possible bankruptcy. Instead, he said Monsour was still delivering high-quality health care and it had an adequate supply of drugs and other items needed to provide that care.
Monsour operated under federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from 1980 to 1989. In the early '90s, it operated under court supervision after a feud among the four founding Monsour brothers froze its administration.
According to the documents released yesterday, Monsour officials had asked for the lawsuit and settlement to be sealed to avoid publicity, and Omnicare officials had agreed.
But the Greensburg Tribune-Review asked Caruso to unseal the documents. Ronald D. Barber, an attorney for the newspaper, said at a hearing yesterday that there must be a compelling reason to seal court documents and Monsour's embarrassment was no cause for secrecy.
Caruso said he had originally sealed the documents to facilitate a settlement, but, "there is no basis at this point to continuing the sealing of the record in this matter."
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