Main facility in the Town of Wallkill, one of 12 operated by Crystal Run
in three counties
TOWN OF WALLKILL – Seven doctors who are partners in Crystal Run Healthcare have filed legal action to prevent what they believe is the devaluation of their partnership status in a merger of the company with Montefiore Medical Center headquartered in New York City. The merger creating a new professional entity known as Crystal Run Healthcare Physicians LLP is expected to take effect on January 1, 2018.
The doctors – Samir Sodha, Howard Yeon, V. Christopher Inzerillo, Rocco Bassora, Andrew Beharie, and Hanna Kim – maintain that they cannot be forced to sign an employment agreement with the new business entity, “which would transform plaintiffs and other physicians from partners into employees.” Crystal Run employs 133 doctors.
In a 35-page suit filed in State Supreme Court in Westchester County, the plaintiffs said the proposed employment agreement would require physicians to provide three years’ notice before resigning from employment with the new entity; would require doctors to refer patients to Montefiore for treatment :regardless of whether they believed in their professional judgment that this was in the patient’s best interest; and would unreasonable require a physician to move virtually anywhere within the entire State of New York that the new employer might direct.”
The doctors also charge proposed employment agreement contains “draconian non-compete covenants” making the plaintiffs “indentured servants” to Crystal Run’s new entities.
The plaintiffs also object to a non-compete clause, which threatens to sue them. “Crystal Run is thus seeking to coerce its physicians into acquiescing in the transaction and with its unfair and unconscionable employment terms,” they charge.
Montefiore operates at least six hospitals and medical care facilities provided through a network of more than 150 locations in the state and the lawsuit maintains for a period of one year following a doctor’s ceasing to be a member of Crystal Run, they cannot practice medicine within 15 miles of any of Crystal Run’s facilities. The partnership operates 12 practice sites in Orange County, five in Rockland County, two in Sullivan County, one in Ulster County and two in New York County.
Crystal Run Marketing Manager Lynn Haskin declined comment on the lawsuit saying “it is our policy not to comment on any active litigation.”
