Valley Medical sues UW Medicine to reverse merger
SEATTLE -- The public hospital district connected with Valley Medical Center is suing University of Washington Medicine over a merger that has already taken effect, and no one can guess the taxpayer tab.
UW Medicine and Valley Medical formed an alliance -- a merger of sorts to create better health care last year. Phil Talmadge, who represents members of the Valley Medical Center's board, says changing the composition of the board hurts taxpayers and patients.
"You don't want some faceless bureaucrats appointed by somebody else running your hospital," Talmadge said.
Last year, Valley Medical's former five-member board voted to enter into that agreement with UW Medicine to streamline health care and increase options for patients. The board went from five elected members to a total of 13, with eight new members appointed by UW Medicine.
"There's a group of un-elected people of trustees who basically run the district, and they're immune from any kind of accountability to the voters," Talmadge said.
With new elections and appointments, make-up of the board changed and Talmadge's clients on the board are suing to stop the alliance. He's afraid unappointed people can run roughshod over elected board members on things like staffing, quality of care and salaries.
In the past, Valley Medical came under fire for a controversial $1 million payment to CEO Rich Roodman for early retirement and for other high salaries. New records obtained by KOMO 4 show that hefty six figure salaries haven't changed.
"Here we have people that are getting paid magnificent, opulent salaries in trouble economic times," Talmadge said.
So now, in a way, the board is suing itself.
"It comes as quite a surprise and more than a little disappointing," said Lou Peterson, an attorney representing UW Medicine in the lawsuit.
Peterson says at the time, in-house counsel and outside attorneys found no legal problems with the agreement.
"This was a carefully thought-out, finely-tuned alliance," Peterson said.
Peterson says it is unprecedented to sue just because political winds have shifted.
"That's another reason why we're surprised when this was so carefully thought-out and sanctioned, and approved by the legal framework, and now well under way in terms of implementation," he said.
Now a judge will have to get involved in a case for health care.
The price tag is unknown. UW and Valley Medical are both taxpayer-supported, meaning the voters are paying the salaries for those two lawyers. Because of the complicated nature of the case, Peterson was contracted as outside counsel; UW's staff lawyers are not handling the lawsuit.
No court date has been set.
UW Medicine and Valley Medical formed an alliance -- a merger of sorts to create better health care last year. Phil Talmadge, who represents members of the Valley Medical Center's board, says changing the composition of the board hurts taxpayers and patients.
"You don't want some faceless bureaucrats appointed by somebody else running your hospital," Talmadge said.
Last year, Valley Medical's former five-member board voted to enter into that agreement with UW Medicine to streamline health care and increase options for patients. The board went from five elected members to a total of 13, with eight new members appointed by UW Medicine.
"There's a group of un-elected people of trustees who basically run the district, and they're immune from any kind of accountability to the voters," Talmadge said.
With new elections and appointments, make-up of the board changed and Talmadge's clients on the board are suing to stop the alliance. He's afraid unappointed people can run roughshod over elected board members on things like staffing, quality of care and salaries.
In the past, Valley Medical came under fire for a controversial $1 million payment to CEO Rich Roodman for early retirement and for other high salaries. New records obtained by KOMO 4 show that hefty six figure salaries haven't changed.
"Here we have people that are getting paid magnificent, opulent salaries in trouble economic times," Talmadge said.
So now, in a way, the board is suing itself.
"It comes as quite a surprise and more than a little disappointing," said Lou Peterson, an attorney representing UW Medicine in the lawsuit.
Peterson says at the time, in-house counsel and outside attorneys found no legal problems with the agreement.
"This was a carefully thought-out, finely-tuned alliance," Peterson said.
Peterson says it is unprecedented to sue just because political winds have shifted.
"That's another reason why we're surprised when this was so carefully thought-out and sanctioned, and approved by the legal framework, and now well under way in terms of implementation," he said.
Now a judge will have to get involved in a case for health care.
The price tag is unknown. UW and Valley Medical are both taxpayer-supported, meaning the voters are paying the salaries for those two lawyers. Because of the complicated nature of the case, Peterson was contracted as outside counsel; UW's staff lawyers are not handling the lawsuit.
No court date has been set.
In assessing the validity of the claim that the members appointed to the VM board by the UW will âride roughshodâ over the hospital, I would recommend that we look at the motivation for this action. On the surface I think that the public story is a smoke screen. Firstly, I donât think that some of the board members want Roodman to continue as CEO. By breaking the alliance they could retake control of VM and can get rid of him. Secondly, two of the board members are physicians whose practices compete with services provided by VM and its clinics.  A third member of the board has in the past had, I believe, a business relationship with another health care organization which is in competition with VM. I was part of the citizensâ committee which helped shape the alliance so I am biased. But I was more involved in the evolution of the alliance than some of the board members who had other things to do rather than wade through all of the information to reach the goal of a sound approach to improving the services of VM. As a taxpayer, I am incensed that my dollars are going to settle what I believe is a personal vendetta.
People are missing the point of the law suit. It's not to dismantle the merger. It's to give power back to the ELECTED BOARD MEMBERS (elected by members of the hospital district) to represent the people that pay taxes in that hospital district. The current arrangement lets UNELECTED UW bureaucrat/puppets completely take control of the affairs of YOUR hospital district. This is a legitimate lawsuit over a merger that was approved by dissident board members on their way out that were yes-men to the hospital CEO. The current ELECTED board actually cares about the people that VMC serves, unlike the people at UW who are just trying to control a larger chunk of the health care network. Â UW provides great care and it is great for VMC to have UW affiliated with them, but not at the expense of losing control of the hospital district. An alliance should be kept but control given back to the people of the hospital district (through it's ELECTED board members).
My mom has been a patient of UW for years - nothing but fantastic service. Â I HAD been a patient of Valley Medical for years until they refused to see me for a hand injury. Â Now I've gone over to Multicare. Â Valley Medical is is lucky to be hooked up with someone who actually believes in patient care, since they clearly do not. Â This lawsuit is ridiculous. Â
UW Medicine is a monster. Since hooking up with Fred Hutch, etc. they are trying to monopolize your healthcare. Plenty of other outstanding options out there but once they get you it's hard to break away from their network.
UW coming into VMC is the best move they've ever made. The system is more modern, feels smoother, and higher quality than prior to the merger. Every time we work within UW med's clinic system we have been impressed and happy with the results. This is ridiculous.
My wife and I have both had surgery at VMC, utilize doctors at UW - Valley clinics and have used many of their outpatient services. I appreciate the new alliance with UW Medicine and am excited to see the advances in care and services Valley offers because of this alliance. What I despise are these three âelected commissionersâ wasting any more of our money (taxes) on frivolous lawsuits. Mr. Joos, Hemsted and Heide have done NOTHING to improve access to care or quality of care. They have one personal agenda onlyâ¦to see the hospital CEO get fired. I wish they would quit lying about their agenda and stop using the media to further their misguided mission. These commissioners arenât representing me as a patient and a resident nor have they done anything to show they actually care about me and the services I need. Honestly, Iâm thankful they arenât responsible for ensuring quality care, because that is not part of their agenda in any way. What they are responsible for is ensuring the tax dollars are spent wisely and I am both saddened and angered to see that they would rather spend that money on a ridiculous lawsuit than actually improving care.
This was a very controversial agreement when it was signed. Â Extremely one-sided in UWMC's favor. Â Great deal for UWMC lousy deal for VMC. Â VMC's top administrator's benefits but not its employees or patients. Â
Wow. Seems a little late now for this action. What didn't the board know prior to the vote that they know now???? Sounds like someone somewhere didn't do their due diligence. I know that both of my parents got far superior treatment at the U than they ever did at VMC.Â
UW Medicine is a wonderful health system. I firmly believe that the hospital staff and the people of the district are deservedly proud to be proud to be affiliated with them. I believe this lawsuit is a waste of valuable resources and money, and is driven by a handful of ill-advised people who are intent on destroying something of incredible value to the community. If this challenge succeeds, it's a really sad day for Valley Medical Center. I hope this important alliance rises above it!Â
Wouldn't let a dead cockroach go to UWMC. They are the epitome of incompetence. I have a letter on record with them prohibiting them and Harborview from ever treating me again.
 @Rider So where are you going if you are severely burned or suffer polytrauma?
 @Dean Fuller The morgue
After the last trip through their OR I want nothing to do with them. Letting a student start an A-line - no problem. Letting a student fail to start an A-line repeatedly on a fully conscious patient - very not cool. I could go on, but it is time to sleep.
 @Rider  @Dean Fuller FYI you always have the option of declining a student who is not certified from doing any work on you in any of their facilities. Anyone not fully licensed or certifies technically requires your permission first. If they do not ask, or the person was certified but made mistakes, your best bet is actually to complain to the state medical board in writing rather than reject an entire system because of one person's mistake.
Phil Talmadge?? Honestly, would YOU buy a used Yugo from this guy?
Being backed by UW is the best thing for a hospital. It takes the management of the hospital away from the private HMO's and gives full treatment capabilities and resources to the hospital.Â
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Harborview, UW Med Center, Northwest Hospital are all part of the UW medicine team. Additionally, the University is directly overseen by the State and Federal government, whereas the private HMO's aren't as closely regulated. They are only regulated by the Dept of Health.Â
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UW Medicine is considered some of the best in the world. One of the reasons people come from all over the world to learn. It is because of the research done at Harborview and the UW that has given residents some of the best survivability odds in the world.Â
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To me, this sounds like someone is pissed because they wont get as much money in their pocketbooks as if they went with a private HMO such as Providence. UW has a policy of accepting ALL patients as well and they don't turn anyone away. Federal law only requires that a hospital provide life saving treatment. The UW hospitals will provide full treatment to the best of their abilities regardless of someone's ability to pay.Â
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 @seattleemt seattleemt, I don't know where in the UWMC system you work, but you really need to open your eyes. This isn't at all about the glorious and charitable UW losing money because they won't turn people away (they do, in fact, turn people away or give very limited treatment when far more is actually needed.
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This is about Valley Medical doing their diligence and realizing that the deck is stacked against them. UW likely has more pending medical malpractice lawsuits than anyone in the public ever hears about and the tainted steroid/stroke/menengitis issue hasn't even hit them yet (but it will). That sure doesn't look good when analyzing the bottom line.
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Their payroll expenses have to be through the roof. Doctors alone, depending on seniority and not whether they are any good at all, can make $500k a year or more. Add to that another layer of less senior doctors who also are paid very well. Their admin costs are very heavy and that also impacts bottom line. On and on and on.Â
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Valley Med made a responsible, wise decision.