Salem Health is arguing in court that its efforts to expand heart care and lure patients from competitors isn’t an unlawful attempt to build a monopoly. The health care provider on Nov. 22 filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Oregon Heart Center, the largest independent cardiac care center in the mid-Willamette Valley. The $15 million suit argued Salem Health violated state antitrust regulations by pressuring patients to switch providers while still in their hospital beds and limiting referrals and access to information. Salem Health argues in the filing that becoming more competitive with the heart clinic is not grounds for an antitrust lawsuit. It claimed Salem is not a monopolizable area, and said Salem Health has a plurality of competition within a 50-mile radius. If Salem Health were to get a monopoly, patients have “reasonable alternatives” in nearby cities, including Eugene, Corvallis and Portland, which would “defeat any price increase,” the motion for dismissal said. Oregon Heart Center filed the lawsuit in the Marion County Circuit Court on Sept. 11. The lawsuit also named Salem Health CEO Cheryl Wolfe, claiming she disparaged the clinic in a newsletter to the local medical community. Stanton Gallegos, lawyer for Oregon Heart Center, did not respond to a request for comment on the motion to dismiss Monday afternoon.Salem Health also filed a motion to drop the defamation claim against Wolfe. The strike motion claimed that Wolfe was using free speech to share relevant information with the public. The suit centers on a business dispute over a new surgical center Oregon Heart Center and Cascade Cardiology opened in 2022. For years, Salem Health and Oregon Heart Center had collaborated by sharing information and making decisions together, according to the lawsuit.Salem Health was part of the plan to develop the new center, but asked to have majority control of it. The Oregon Heart Center’s complaint claims that Salem Health withdrew after the other clinics refused. Salem Health’s motion claims that it was forced out of negotiations.Since then, the lawsuit claims that Salem Health has deliberately worked to divert patients from the Oregon Heart Center, and canceled a contract to share patient information which it said would increase wait times. Salem Health claims that the heart center began referring hundreds of patients to Portland hospitals. The lawsuit claims Salem Health afterward pressured its providers to not refer patients to cardiologists at Oregon Heart Center, including when a patient comes into the emergency room and the “on call” cardiologist is independent, according to the lawsuit.  Salem Health said its alleged actions listed in the lawsuit were not unlawful and have increased the competitiveness of cardiology in Salem, rather than diminishing it. “Salem Health’s cardiology practice benefits consumers by providing more options for cardiology care. To the extent that (Oregon Heart Center) loses business and customers as a result, the antitrust laws are not its remedy,” the motion said. “As explained in our motions, Oregon Heart Center’s claim that Salem Health’s efforts to improve care are actually attempts to monopolize the market is meritless. It’s a shame our colleagues at Oregon Heart Center have chosen to file a lawsuit that diverts precious resources away from patient care,” Wolfe said in a Nov. 22 statement emailed to Salem Reporter. Salem Health accused of monopolizing heart care Oregon Heart Center employs 12 providers serving the Salem area, according to the lawsuit. Its main office is at 610 Hawthorne Ave. S.E., with additional locations in Dallas, Stayton and Grand Ronde. Salem Health employs over 5,800 people in Salem, making it the city’s largest private employer, according to the hospital’s website. It also operates the busiest emergency department in the state. Salem Hospital and Salem Health West Valley Hospital brought in over $1 billion in net patient revenue in 2023, according to Oregon Health Authority data. Salem Health has expanded in recent years. In 2022, it added 150 beds with a new hospital tower. Last fall, it absorbed Hope Orthopedics and its three clinics, becoming the area’s main provider of bone care, which the lawsuit cited as an example of the hospital’s consolidation efforts. In its motion, Salem Health claims that the heart center’s allegations “attempted to weaponize Oregon’s tort and antitrust laws to stifle the competitive threat it sees in Salem Health—all to the detriment of patients.” The motion said antitrust laws are in place to protect competition in the market, not individual competitors. ”Mere economic injury to a competitor does not equate to injury to competition—only when consumer welfare is harmed does antitrust injury arise,” the motion said.In another motion, Salem Health asked that the defamation claim against Cheryl Wolfe be dismissed.The claim focuses on a June “Common Ground” newsletter to the Salem Health staff and administration, where Wolfe said they would not renew a seven-year contract to share records with the heart center.  “Despite past differences, Salem Health has a long history of supporting and collaborating with local practices to improve care. However, (Oregon Heart Center) has demonstrated a persistent unwillingness to collaborate with Salem Health. Further, it has disparaged the quality of Salem Health and its physicians. To publicly malign without a factual basis the quality of our surgeons and our CT program will not be tolerated,” Wolfe wrote in the newsletter.She said in the newsletter that Salem Health had lost patients because the Oregon Heart Center began referring patients to Portland after the situation with the 2022 surgical center. The motion claims that the referrals discouraged over 700 patients from getting heart care close to home. That newsletter led to canceled appointments and the loss of referrals at Oregon Heart, according to the lawsuit. The motion to dismiss it claims that Wolfe has the right to free speech, and that the information about local health care included in the newsletter was a matter of public interest.  Salem Health’s motions request an oral argument and hearing, which have not been scheduled as of Monday, according to court documents. Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Salem Health asks judge to dismiss lawsuit claiming cardiology monopoly appeared first on Salem Reporter.