Terrebonne General sues in effort to close Thibodaux Regional clinics in Houma. Here's why
Terrebonne General Health System has filed a lawsuit seeking to force Thibodaux Regional Medical Center to close two clinics in Houma, saying they are operating in violation of state law.
Specifically, the suit says public hospital service districts are prohibited by law from operating medical facilities in another district's territory without consent. Both hospitals operate as service districts created under state law.
“We recognize what drives our colleagues at Thibodaux Regional, but ambition doesn’t upstage the law,” Phyllis Peoples, Terrebonne General president and CEO, said in a news release. “Thibodaux Regional’s action violates the fundamental purpose of hospital service districts."
Thibodaux Regional opened a clinic at 1238 St. Charles St. in Houma in February. And it opened an urgent care clinic at 1411 St. Charles St. in Houma in September 2021.
The suit was filed Nov. 3 in state District Court in Houma.
The Courier and Daily Comet have reached out to Thibodaux Regional Health System CEO Greg Stock for comment. He was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon.
The lawsuit notes that Thibodaux Regional has publicly stated it was changing its status from a hospital service district to a nonprofit corporation. However, the suit contends the use of a nonprofit corporation promoted by Lafourche Hospital Service District No. 3, created for Thibodaux Regional, to expand beyond its allowable territory is not permissible.
Terrebonne General says the state Attorney General’s Office has consistently issued legal opinions that say the law does not allow a hospital service district to do indirectly what it is prohibited from doing directly.
"We are aware of the law because when Terrebonne General attempted to expand into the territory of Lafourche Hospital Service District No. 2, a Louisiana appellate court ruled that such non-consensual out-of-territory expansion was prohibited by state law,” Peoples said.
In that case, St. Anne Hospital in Raceland, which operates as Hospital Service District 2, won court judgments in 1998 that forced Terrebonne General to close a clinic in Raceland.
The state First Circuit Court of Appeal, in upholding a Lafourche judge's decision, said allowing a public hospital service district to compete with one in another parish could hobble the latter.
"By allowing a public hospital service district to compete with, and possibly canibalize and destroy, a public district in another parish, many areas of the less affluent, smaller or rural district could be left without the very medical services that the Legislature hoped to promote," the appeals court ruled.
Terrebonne General cites the case and makes a similar argument in its lawsuit against Thibodaux Regional.
“Terrebonne General has been serving the health care needs of its community since 1954, and as the largest community-based health system in southeast Louisiana, Terrebonne General understands growth,” Peoples said. “There are a great many attractive, reachable markets for us too. But hospital service district hospitals — like Terrebonne General and Thibodaux Regional — operate under specific state laws designed to serve communities of a specific geography to ensure that each community in the state has a viable and self-sustaining health care system for the residents of that district."
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Terrebonne General sues Thibodaux Regional, seeking to shut Houma clinics
