Medical Facility Allegedly Violates Informed Consent Laws

This case involves a medical ethics dispute between a hospital and a plaintiff outpatient rehabilitation facility. The defendant hospital entered into a kickback agreement whereby the defendant’s physicians agreed to send all rehabilitation patients to a facility other than the plaintiffs. The other rehabilitation facility was farther away from the hospital than the plaintiff by 25 miles and was smaller in size.

Contrary to the doctrine of informed consent, the defendant doctors refused to tell patients that plaintiff institution was an option for transfer and actively prevented patients from being transferred to the plaintiff facility even though the smaller rehabilitation facility did not have the resources to keep up with the patients being referred to it. It was alleged that a significant percentage of the patients that were referred to the smaller rehabilitation facility would have chosen the plaintiff facility if they had been told of their options, as required by the law.