A D.C. Superior Court judge issued an order staying proceedings in a case between GW Hospital operator Universal Health Services and the Medical Faculty Associates over litigation surrounding a contract enforcement in February.
The order, which appears to be part of a litigation battle that begin in early April last year between UHS and the MFA, centers around whether UHS “properly withheld” Graduate Medical Education reimbursements — payments extended by the federal government and Medicare to teaching hospitals to cover the costs of training residents and fellows in approved programs — in its financial calculations to GW. Limited public information is available about the litigation after Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier in September sealed the case at the request of UHS, GW and the MFA in an effort to protect confidential information that is governed by a confidentiality agreement between the parties involved, per the seal.
MFA spokesperson Anne Banner declined to comment on the proceedings because officials do not comment on “pending litigation.”
Bosier in August ruled that the disagreement be resolved through arbitration and stayed the case until the arbitration process is complete, which ultimately led to UHS appealing the ruling in September, per the February stay order.
The D.C. Court of Appeals is currently reviewing whether the parties should proceed with arbitration as ordered by the lower court, per the stay order, which as a result pushed the Superior Court to extend the stay until the July 25 remote hearing.
The case is at least the second lawsuit that the MFA and UHS have filed against each other in the last five years, after GW and the MFA sued UHS in December 2019 alleging that the company failed to uphold its agreement to create and expand hospital programs, like an ambulatory care network and centers that focus on issues like emergency medicine and women’s health.
A judge partially dismissed the December 2019 lawsuit in June 2020, dismissing the University’s claim that UHS did not uphold its commitment to support an integrated health care network and the good faith agreement outlined in its contract.
The judge upheld the University’s claim that UHS has an obligation to support the hospital’s “centers of emphasis,” which include several specific clinical programs like emergency medicine and women’s health.
GW later in 2022 sold off its 20 percent stake in the GW Hospital to UHS, making the company the sole owner of the hospital.
