Huge Victory For Eugene Emergency Physicians!

Here's the update you've all been waiting for. In the lawsuit filed by Eugene Emergency Physicians against Peace Health and Apollo MD, shortly after 9:00 a. m., it was announced that Peace Health had kicked Apollo MD to the curb and entered into an agreement with Eugene Emergency Physicians. Uh, Peace Health, you think there's any way the emergency department could just stop seeing old people? What are you doing here? Peace Health was going to lose their court case, so they decided to cut their losses and go with us instead. That's impossible. We're more expensive and take worse care of patients. Hospitals love that combination. Oh, Apollo MD. Yeah. One more thing. Come here. Get the out of my state. Now, let's get one thing straight. Peace is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. They were losing this case badly. They were going to lose this case. The judge was about to rip their face off. And in order to try to save their face, they decided instead to just make a deal with Eugene Emergency Physicians. Then they talked through some of the specifics in the contract between Peace Health and Eugene Emergency Physicians. And then the judge had some closing statements. He elaborated on his statements from Monday about Apollo MD CEO Dr. Patel and his psy Dr. Chapman committing perjury. He reiterated that those doctors during their testimony were quote trying to deceive the court. He also stated that Dr. Chapman, the psy running the shell company in Oregon, was clearly an accomplished physician, but that the business model of Apollo MD got in the way of his purpose. Which, if that doesn't sum up the real core of the problem of these MSOs, these corporations trying to run healthcare, I don't know what does. Finally, Judge Kasabi concluded that Senate Bill 951, the driver behind this lawsuit, was a wise and far-reaching step that Oregon lawmakers took to protect patients from corporations just like Apollo MD. And if you're a doctor or PA working for Apollo MD, your CEO and your medical director of the year 2024 lied under oath in federal court. I don't know. That would worry me. I am so happy for the Eugene Emergency Physicians and the people of Lane County. I asked the physicians if there's anything that they wanted to say about this and here's their response. We are excited to serve the community that we fought for and our advocacy is not yet over. We hope that we are an example for Democratic groups all over the country. That's who you want in your community taking care of you and your family. And they're right. The fight is not over because this law in Oregon, it works. It's been tested. There is no reason we can't take this to every state in this country. I routinely see comments from fellow physicians about how we're done. We've lost our autonomy. There's nothing we can do. What's the point in fighting? This is why you fight because you can win. We won here in Oregon. We fought back private equity and you can do it, too. 30 states have corporate practice and medicine laws on the books. Some of them are weak. strong. Some of them are not enforced whatsoever. So get with your representatives, and I'm mainly talking to physicians here. Talk to your representatives and figure out who you need to sue to get something done. We now have a blueprint for gaining physician autonomy, which is going to be good for us. It's good for our patients. It's great for our communities. Now we do the work. We're just getting started.