Surgeon takes second stab at suing hospital for forced in-network radiology referrals
A fired Florida orthopedic surgeon is taking a second stab at suing his former hospital after it allegedly terminated him for failing to use in-network radiology services.
It was back in January that Ayman Daouk, MD, first filed his whistleblower complaint against Orlando Health and its imaging centers, also claiming the system reprimanded him for performing surgeries elsewhere. However, his legal team has now adopted a different strategy after the Department of Justice declined to join the lawsuit, MedPage Today reported.
Daouk’s legal team dropped the original complaint in June and has now filed a new complaint in Florida state court, outlining the same complaints. He’s alleging the eight-hospital system violated the Stark Law and is seeking damages for lost pay and benefits, his dignity and emotional anguish.
The hospital allegedly fired the orthopedic experts in 2018 after years of asking that he not perform surgeries at out-of-network locations. Daouk claims he avoided using Orlando Health radiologists because patients complained of long wait times and other issues.
The hospital, surgeon and his attorneys all declined to comment to MedPage. You can read their coverage from Sept. 10 below, and our story on the original lawsuit here.
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.