A Springfield cardiologist filed a civil lawsuit against CoxHealth and Ferrell-Duncan Clinic, Inc., claiming the hospital and clinic wrongfully terminated his privileges and defamed the doctor by referring to him as an “immediate threat to the public.”
Through his attorneys at Strong Law, P.C., Dr. Keesag Baron and Baron Cardiology Group filed the suit in Greene County on April 17.
Baron is a board-certified physician who’s practiced in Springfield since 1995 and specializes in interventional cardiology.
CoxHealth issued the following statement in response to the lawsuit filing:
“We can confirm that Dr. Baron is not an employee of CoxHealth and does not have privileges on any CoxHealth medical staff.
“CoxHealth is committed to integrity and ethics in all of our business practices and in our relationships with physicians. We followed appropriate procedures in all reviews involving Dr. Baron, and we stand by all decisions made.
“We are unable to comment further on this situation as it is a matter in litigation.”
According to Baron’s petition, he worked for CoxHealth and the Ferrell-Duncan Clinic (a subsidiary of CoxHealth) for several years. He opened his independent practice called Baron Cardiology Group in 2008. As part of that independent practice, Baron maintained staff privileges with CoxHealth and remained a part of the Ferrell-Duncan Clinic cardiology group.
According to the petition, Baron’s staff privileges allowed his patients with CoxHealth insurance to continue to see him and be covered by their health insurance.
Baron’s attorneys alleged in the suit that the doctor would regularly refer his patients to other practitioners, namely cardiothoracic surgeons.
“Some of these patients would be referred to Cox or FDC physicians, however, many of the patients were referred to other facilities. Dr. Baron always made these referrals based on the patients’ medical condition and where he believed they would receive the best care,” the lawsuit alleges. “As time went on, Cox and FDC began to pressure Dr. Baron to send all of his referrals to Cox and FDC and not to other facilities.”
Baron’s attorneys claim CoxHealth and Ferrell-Duncan Clinic “began looking for opportunities to remove Dr. Baron’s privileges, in order to capture the profits and revenue of Dr. Baron’s patient (and referral) base.”
The lawsuit claims CoxHealth and Ferrell-Duncan Clinic used an 88-year-old patient’s death as a pretense to remove Baron’s privileges.
“Ultimately, Cox and FDC terminated Dr. Baron’s privileges based on Dr. Baron’s medical decision which defendants do not do with other physicians, even if those other physicians’ decisions were objectively shown to be negligent and wrong,” Baron’s attorneys claim in the suit.
Baron is suing CoxHealth and the clinic for tortious interference with a business relationship, defamation and a Sherman Act Violation (an antitrust law).
As part of the defamation claim, Baron’s attorneys allege CoxHealth and the Ferrell-Duncan Clinic “reported and published to the National Practitioner Data Banks, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and other entities and persons, that Dr. Baron had ‘unacceptable technical skills and judgment,’ ‘Behavior issues with lack of insight including refusal to accept responsibility,’ ‘poor judgment,’ that he falsified medical records, that Dr. Baron failed to self-report, and that Dr. Baron represented an ‘IMMEDIATE THREAT TO THE PUBLIC.’”
According to Baron’s suit, CoxHealth and Ferrell-Duncan Clinic published those statements knowing “that the statements were defamatory and false.”
Dr. Baron is married to Rita Baron, a prominent Springfield architect and outgoing chair of the Drury University Board of Trustees. According to a biography on his website, Baron is one of a select few cardiologists in the nation who is fellowship-trained in both Interventional Cardiology (angioplasty) and Cardiac Electrophysiology (heart rhythm disorders).
