San Francisco settles lawsuit
against Brown and Toland

By Lara Moscrip, Bay City News Service

October 16, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced today that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought by his office and Chinese Hospital against a San Francisco medical group.

The civil lawsuit was filed in April against Brown & Toland Medical Group in San Francisco Superior Court.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, according to Herrera's office, but Brown & Toland will pay $100,000 to the city's general fund, according to deputy press secretary Alexis Truchan.

The lawsuit filed April 10 alleged that Brown & Toland's dominant position in San Francisco's health care market threatened Chinese Hospital's ability to continue to serve its patients.

In the lawsuit, Herrera and Chinese Hospital charged Brown & Toland with "coercing doctors affiliated with the Chinese Community Health Care Association into exclusive dealing commitments so as to monopolize the market for physician services, and potentially shut down San Francisco's last independent private hospital," according to a statement released by Herrera.

The lawsuit also accused the medical group of using its market power to "fixing prices and engaging in predatory business practices."

Chinese Hospital on Jackson Street in the Chinatown neighborhood has provided health care to the Chinese community since 1899, according to Herrera's office.

It is the last remaining independent private hospital in San Francisco and provides care to many Medicare and Medi-Cal eligible city residents, Herrera's office reported.

Brown & Toland has more than 1,500 physician members who serve approximately 260,000 patients, according to information from Herrera's office.

According to Dr. Eric Leung, president of the Chinese Community Health Care Association, the settlement will create solutions.

"We are pleased that physicians who are members of both the CCHCA and Brown & Toland are able to continue to work on behalf of the Chinese Hospital system, and that Brown & Toland physicians would be able to continue to serve our community as consultants of CCHCA, which has been a long and beneficial working relationship."

The CCHA is a nonprofit association with more than 170 physician members serving more than 27,000 patients mainly through Chinese Hospital, according to a statement from Herrera's office.

Copyright © 2006 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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