WPAHS fails to halt move of doctors
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A judge on Tuesday denied a request from the West Penn Allegheny Health System to immediately block three physicians from joining a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center primary care practice.
Instead, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Christine Ward has asked both sides to prepare arguments, which she will hear late next month.
WPAHS locked out the doctors -- Jennifer Stasko, Kenneth Plowey and Shawn Naseem -- from their Monroeville office on Feb. 18 after they failed to reach a contract agreement with Premier Medical Associates, with whom WPAHS had reached an affiliation agreement in July. They also directed the doctors' patients to other WPAHS-affiliated physicians.
The health system has continued to pay the three under terms of contracts that expire July 1.
Last week, according to the health system's filing, the physicians informed WPAHS they believed that the lockout immediately terminated the contract, and that they were joining UPMC Community Medicine Inc.
According to WPAHS, the physicians are violating a two-year noncompete clause in the contract by signing on with UPMC.
The physicians' attorney, Suzanne DeWalt, declined to comment Tuesday.
First Published March 23, 2011 12:00 am
