Radiology practice stages turf war, using CON law to block rival’s expansion plans
Two radiology practices in Connecticut are currently engaged in a turf war, with one of the state’s largest imaging providers attempting to block a competitor from expanding its services.
Mednax-affiliated Jefferson Radiology is reportedly using the state’s certificate-of-need law to keep rival Radiology Associates of Hartford from adding CT and MRI services at one location. The stakes are high in the fight, with estimates that the Bloomfield, Connecticut-based practice could rake in upward of $2 million annually with the addition, the Hartford Business Journal reported Tuesday, March 24. That would likely include poaching some patients from larger Jefferson’s own nearby practice.
One Connecticut doctor—with no stake in the battle—said this is just another example of how physicians use CON laws to keep others from stealing their business.
“It’s not necessarily about improving care or about making care less costly. Entities tend to try to protect their turf,” Steven Levine, MD, a Trumbull-based ear, nose and throat physician, told the journal.
Jefferson Radiology has been around since 1963 and became a part of larger Mednax back in 2017. At the time of the deal, the business boasted 60 radiologists on staff, working at 10 outpatient centers in Hartford County. The Hartford HealthCare hospital system also owns a 49% stake in the Jefferson, according to the report. Meanwhile, Radiology Associates is physician-owned and an exclusive imaging provider to Trinity hospitals in the area, including its flagship St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. It has four locations and employs about 20 rads, according to its website.
Radiology Associates’ request to the state would include a $2.9 million purchase of MRI and CT scanners for its practice in Bloomfield, a city of 20,000 located in Hartford County. RAH also reportedly wants to transfer ownership of imaging equipment at this and other locations to a newly formed LLC, which would allow hospitals and others to invest in the practice and fuel further growth.
Read more in the Hartford Business Journal.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.