Logan v. HCA, Inc.

HCQIA – NO PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION

Logan v. HCA, Inc., No. 3:05-0006
(M.D.Tenn. Nov. 30, 2005)

A physician acting
pro se filed an 80-page complaint against "dozens of
individual and corporate defendants" alleging RICO and other claims arising
out of a Data Bank report filed by one hospital and another hospital’s action
rescinding a recruitment contract. The United States District Court for the Middle
District of Tennessee held that the defendants were not acting as state actors,
simply because HCQIA governed their peer review actions, and upheld a federal
magistrate’s dismissal of a claim because HCQIA provides no private cause of
action. The court dismissed the RICO claim, stating that merely mailing peer
review committee results does not constitute mail fraud. Moreover, the physician
failed to plead sufficient facts which would demonstrate that he had relied upon
any fraudulent misrepresentations by the hospitals as required by the statute.