Victim of alleged hiring collusion between Radiology Partners, kidney care giant DaVita testifies
A victim of alleged hiring collusion between Radiology Partners and kidney care giant DaVita Inc. recently testified, with government prosecutors resting their case Wednesday.
Jurors have now begun deliberations in the blockbuster criminal trial, with the outcome likely reverberating across healthcare and other industries. They’ll decide whether the dialysis center operator and its former longtime CEO Kent Thiry violated the law by allegedly forming agreements with three companies, dictating the recruitment of DaVita employees.
Elliot Holder, a former mid-level worker with the Denver-based company, testified Tuesday, recounting his experience applying for a job at Rad Partners. Rules allegedly stipulated that Holder needed to inform his boss at DaVita that he was seeking an employment change, Colorado Politics reported April 13.
“I remember just, it was really weird," he testified, according to the news outlet. “I felt pretty anxious at the time, I remember. I was younger, obviously, in my career, so I was really nervous about telling my bosses anything.”
RP CEO Rich Whitney (a former DaVita executive) shared earlier in the trial he had agreed not to hire employees from his former workplace unless certain conditions were met. Those included if they were actively seeking to leave DaVita or if they told their manager they were interested in a career change. Holder said he was caught off guard by the request and ended up removing his name from consideration. He later received a raise and promotion unrelated to the RP offer, according to the report.
Holder claimed he would not have received such perks if the company knew about his job hunt. “I figured that if my leadership found out, it would jeopardize my future or my career path," he testified.
On the other side, DaVita attorneys have said that the alleged nonpoaching agreements were legitimate business deals that did not stifle the labor market. They offered testimony from economics consultant Pierre-Yves Cremieux, who contended that median salaries and turnover among senior DaVita employees climbed during the period (2012-2019). Rivalry for talent between the kidney care provider and Radiology Partners, along with alleged co-conspirators Surgical Care Affiliates and Hazel Health, was robust.
“We see meaningful competition," Cremieux said, according to Colorado Politics. “The data indicates that the degree of competition between DaVita and SCA, DaVita and Hazel, DaVita and RP is indistinguishable from the degree of competition I observed from other companies hiring from DaVita."
The prosecution presented a total of nine witnesses and rested its case Wednesday, while the defense only brought one, the Denver Post noted (via BusinessDen).
If convicted, Thiry faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine per count, while his former company faces fines of up to $100 million per count. Rad Partners and its leader have reportedly applied for leniency from the antitrust division, cooperating with the investigation in exchange for avoiding prosecution.
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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.