A former employee of Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates filed a complaint against the company and Dallas-based United Surgical Partners International, alleging they entered into an agreement not to compete for senior-level employees.
Five details:
1. Allen Spradling, a former director of information technology at SCA, filed the complaint March 9 on behalf of himself and others. The complaint alleges SCA and USPI had a "no-poach" agreement between May 2010 and July 2017.
2. The complaint accuses the companies of suppressing pay for senior-level employees because they weren't competing against each other.
3. The Justice Department filed charges against SCA in January in connection with the alleged anti-competitive agreements, and the department is pursuing criminal charges.
4. Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare and Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group are named as defendants in the complaint alongside former SCA CEO Andrew Hayek, who is now executive vice president and senior adviser to the CEO of Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company. Tenet owns a majority stake in USPI, and UnitedHealth Group purchased SCA in 2017.
5. The complaint details emails between Mr. Hayek and USPI executives agreeing not to actively recruit from each other. Mr. Hayek is accused of telling SCA executives they could consider hiring USPI's senior-level employees if the employee reached out to SCA and the employee told USPI they wanted to leave.