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Lawyers Question Motives in Hospital Sale

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By LAWRENCE MESSINA

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - HCA Inc.'s plan to sell five hospitals, including its four in West Virginia, is a ruse to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages from malpractice allegations against a doctor, according to lawyers who have asked the state to review the $330 million deal.

The lawyers represent 71 former patients suing over the alleged negligence at Putnam General Hospital in Hurricane, W.Va. Putnam General is among the five hospitals Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA wants to sell to LifePoint Hospitals Inc., a company HCA spun off in 1999.

The proposed sale was announced in July, four months after a Putnam County circuit judge ruled that West Virginia's caps on damages in medical malpractice cases do not apply to the allegations against Putnam General and its parent company in the lawsuits against Dr. John A. King and his former assistant.

With more than 270 hospitals and surgery centers in 23 states, HCA said it wanted to shed all facilities "primarily in rural and nonurban markets" when it proposed selling Putnam General, along with St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg, St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, Raleigh General Hospital in Beckley and Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands, Va.

But that reason appears to be a screen for the real reason, plaintiffs attorneys say. On Friday, they asked the state Health Care Authority, which regulates health care spending and must approve the sale, for documents from the deal.

The lawsuits come as HCA also deals with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the massive sale of HCA shares by company insiders and executives, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., totaling some $112 million between January and June. Frist has said he sold the shares to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest, using only information that was publicly available.

HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said the proposed sale of Putnam General and the other hospitals has nothing to do with the claims arising from King's six-month stint there, or from the insiders' stock sales.

But the plaintiffs link their sale to possible damages from more than 100 lawsuits lodged since mid-2003 alleging that King killed, maimed or otherwise harmed scores of patients while at Putnam General, largely through botched orthopedic surgeries.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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