Ellis Medicine is suing St. Peter's Health Partners after their proposed merger fell through this summer.
During six years of discussions, St. Peter's purchased the cardiology company that Ellis uses. The Schenectady-based healthcare system now is accusing its Albany-based counterpart of forcing its 27 cardiologists to sign contract agreements that would prohibit them from working at Ellis' facilities for one year.
Ellis said that violates an agreement between the two groups, and that St. Peter's has threatened legal action against cardiologists who try to work for Ellis.
Ellis claimed St. Peter's is trying to destroy them as a competitor and said losing access to their cardiologists "would threaten Ellis’s existence as well as the provision of essential medical services to the population of Schenectady."
"Ellis brings this action reluctantly to prevent the irreparable harm SPHPMA seeks to inflict on Ellis, evidently in a desire to destroy Ellis as a competitor, gain a stranglehold on the hospital services business in the Capital Region," the lawsuit said, in part, "and, as an inevitable by-product, inflict grievous harm on the medically needy of Schenectady County, many of whom are among the most vulnerable in society."
Soon after St. Peter's pulled out of talks with Ellis, Albany Medical Center announced it would explore a future relationship with Ellis.
