Cambia Health Solutions – the parent company of Regence BlueCross BlueShield – lost an attempt to dismiss a case brought by a former medical director who had been abruptly fired. .
Dr. Michael Kaufman had been the executive medical director at Cambia’s affiliate – Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah -- for eight months before being fired by Dr. Csaba Mera. At the time, Mera was interim chief medical officer for Cambia and executive medical director for Regence’s Oregon health plan.
Kaufman is seeking $4 million in economic damages, according to his Portland attorney, Craig Crispin who said the jury trial gets underway on October 26 in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Crispin does not expect the case to be settled in advance. Earlier, Cambia tried for summary judgement but lost on four of its five claims, he said.
Kaufman has asserted that Cambia breached his contract by firing him without cause, his deficiencies were based on biased reporting by Mera who failed to give him adequate time to approve his performance. About the same time he was terminated, Kaufman had applied for the same position as Mera, to become chief medical officer for all the Regence Health Plans. Kaufman also asserts he was not hired as an at-will employee.
Cambia refused to comment on this case, “This is currently in litigation and we therefore cannot comment other than to say that we deny the allegations in this matter,” said Regens Frieden, director or of public relations and stakeholder communications at Cambia Health Solutions
Kaufman was hired by Cambia on Sept. 7, 2011 and given an annual salary of $275,000 along with a $125,000 sign-on bonus. He also asserts that his supervisor, Dr. Ralph Prows, chief medical officer, gave him explicit assurances that he would be protected from an abrupt termination at Cambia and, instead, would be given due process and an opportunity to change his performance to meet expectations. If he hadn’t had those assurances, Kaufman maintains he would not have accepted the position. He had also been told that he was not considered an at will employee.
Later, in an interview with Jared Short, president of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Kaufman maintains there were no indications of any performance issues, according to the complaint.
Kaufman also asserts that other employees and executives at Regence had praised his work on several occasions. Had any problems arisen, he had been told a corrective action plan would have been put in place, and he had been assured, upon being hired, that he was not an at-will employee.
Kaufman is an Ivy League educated physician and attorney, and had extensive experience in healthcare management before being hired by Cambia. .
In response, the attorney representing Cambia told The Lund Report that Mera had a telephone conversation with Kaufman shortly before he was fired after raising concerns about his “lack of leadership, lack of initiative and failure to deliver on assigned tasks.”
Earlier, Mera had expressed the same concerns in several meetings with Joan Byrd, vice president of integrated care management at Cambia, according to the response.
“Cambia feels strongly that there is no basis for Dr. Kaufman’s allegations,” Janine C. Blatt, with the law firm Druckman & Blatt, told The Lund Report earlier. “Cambia intends to contest the claims vigorously and is confident in its position and that it will prevail. Dr. Kaufman made very similar allegations in another lawsuit against an employer for whom he worked prior to Cambia. That lawsuit has been dismissed in favor of the employer.”
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
