Marietta Memorial Hospital is suing WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center and the West Virginia University Health System, accusing them of supporting the filing of false complaints against their regional competitor that led doctors not to work for Memorial.

According to an amended complaint filed May 1 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, former executives and a physician affiliated with Camden Clark filed a report with the Justice Department in 2013 and a lawsuit in 2016 accusing Memorial of violating federal law by over-compensating physicians and health care providers. Those making the filings knew the accusations were false and had the support of some leaders at Camden Clark and WVU Hospitals, the new suit says.

“The allegations and claims … were false, materially misstated and without support,” it says. “Moreover, members of (the) group and Defendant Camden knew and certainly should have known that the Underlying Complaint contained falsehoods and misstatements.”

The suit lists Marietta Area Healthcare Inc., the not-for-profit, sole corporate member of Marietta Memorial Hospital and Marietta Healthcare Physicians Inc., and those two entities, as plaintiffs. Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital Corporation; Camden-Clark Health Services Inc.; West Virginia United Health System Inc., dba West Virginia University Health System; and West Virginia University Hospitals Inc. are the defendants.

The plaintiffs allege malicious prosecution, tortious interference, abuse of process, fraudulent legal process in violation of West Virginia code, civil conspiracy, aiding and abetting tortious conduct and vicarious liability. The suit, filed by Charleston attorney Michael B. Hissam, seeks a jury trial and compensatory, consequential and punitive damages.

Representatives of Camden Clark and WVU Medicine were not immediately available to comment Tuesday.

The suit claims that, around 10 years ago, then-Camden Clark CEO Mike King, Dr. Michael Roberts with Parkersburg Surgical Associates and then-hospital legal counsel Todd A. Kruger “embarked on an effort to tortiously interfere with the business and reputation of Memorial Health, a quickly growing and well-respected health care provider serving patients throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley.” It adds that they did so “with the express approval of Defendant Camden through certain of its officers or directors.”

The suit alleges this was done first through a report to the Justice Department, then a 2016 lawsuit. That suit claimed Memorial made offers of employment to the physician partners of Parkersburg Surgical Associates, including Roberts, that were in excess of fair market value, and made similar offers to other medical groups and physicians in the area.

Such efforts to increase its business and revenue would violate federal laws governing reimbursements for health care programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Tri-Care.

“Although based on falsities, that action and investigation, as well as the spreading of information about them, caused Memorial Health to lose physicians who were affiliated with it, disrupted its efforts to recruit other physicians, and affected its business opportunities,” Memorial’s lawsuit says. In 2018, the situation “led at least one physician to resign from her position at Memorial Health and … other physicians, as well as physicians’ medical group (sic), to decline offers of employment.”

More than 30 physicians turned down recruiting efforts, the suit says.

The allegations were untrue, and the Camden Clark officials knew it, the new suit says. Federal investigators conducted interviews and reviewed documents over the course of three years and “ultimately found those allegations and claims to be unsubstantiated,” it says.

The plaintiffs requested the suit be dismissed in 2020. When that motion was granted, portions of the complaint were unsealed and Memorial Health representatives learned King and Roberts were the ones who made it, the new suit says. After filing suit against them in 2021, it says, Memorial representatives learned of the involvement of Kruger and two Camden Clark directors, who are also directors with West Virginia United Health System “approved, authorized and sanctioned Kruger’s role and participation” in the lawsuit.

Court records show that case ended earlier this year in a mistriaL.