CoxHealth called a cardiologist an 'IMMEDIATE THREAT TO PUBLIC.' He's now suing them

Susan Szuch, Springfield News-Leader
·3 min read
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A Springfield cardiologists is suing CoxHealth for defamation and anti-trust violations.
A Springfield cardiologists is suing CoxHealth for defamation and anti-trust violations.

A cardiologist is suing CoxHealth for wrongly removing his admitting privileges and reporting to national organizations and federal agencies that the doctor was an "IMMEDIATE THREAT TO THE PUBLIC."

Dr. Keesag Baron is suing CoxHealth and the CoxHealth Ferrell Duncan Clinic for terminating his admitting privileges, which the petition alleges was done intentionally to force Baron's patients to return to CoxHealth or FDC; for defamation; and for violating the Sherman Act, an anti-trust law meant to protect competition for the sake of consumers, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Baron is a cardiologist who has been registered with the Missouri Board of Healing Arts, the state licensing board, since 1995 and has no disciplinary measures against him. He runs Baron Cardiology Group in Springfield and has been involved in numerous biomedical advances for cardiac patients, according to his website. Baron is married to Rita Baron, who owns a local architectural firm and is chair of Drury University's board of trustees.

"CoxHealth is committed to integrity and ethics in all of our business practices and in our relationships with physicians. We followed appropriate procedures in all reviews involving Dr. Baron, and we stand by all decisions made," CoxHealth said in an emailed statement. "We are unable to comment further on this situation as it is a matter in litigation."

Baron is being represented by Chandler Gregg of Strong Law. CoxHealth and Ferrell Duncan Clinic is being represented by Kent Hyde of Hyde, Love & Overby LLP.

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According to the petition, Baron had admitting staff privileges at CoxHealth from 2008 until November 2022. Baron would refer his patients to other health care providers, including CoxHealth, "based on the patients' medical condition and where he believed they would receive the best care." CoxHealth and FDC allegedly pressured Baron to send all his referrals to them rather than other facilities, and when he refused to do so, used the death of an 88-year-old patient as pretense for removing his privileges, according to court records.

The court records allege that Cox initiated a peer review against Baron "based on a medical judgement, something that defendants do not do even if there have been judicial findings or jury verdicts finding their doctors' medical judgement is and/or was negligent." According to the American Medical Association's code of medical ethics, the peer review process is "intended to balance physicians' rights to exercise medical judgement freely with the obligation to do so wisely and temperately."

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In June 2022, Cox and FDC allegedly reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, the United States Department of Health and Human Services "and other entities and persons" that Baron exhibited poor judgement, behavior issues, that he falsified medical records, failed to self-report and was an "IMMEDIATE THREAT TO THE PUBLIC." The National Practitioner Data Bank is a resource used by providers across the country and is meant to promote quality health care and to deter fraud and abuse.

Baron also alleges that the defendants questioned his sanity and mental competence, and that they eventually terminated his privileges based on Baron's medical decision, "which defendants do not do with other physicians, even if those other physicians decisions were objectively shown to be negligent and wrong." According to the court records, this decision caused substantial financial losses.

According to Case.Net, there have been two civil cases in the past 25 years where Baron has been sued for malpractice, one in 2001 and one in 2014, both of which were dismissed by the parties.

Susan Szuch reports on health and food for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Cardiologist alleges CoxHealth defamed him, harmed his business