Veteran pediatricians claim they were fired from N.J. hospital because of their age – NJ.com

Three veteran pediatricians laid off from Hackensack Meridian Health have filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the hospital for firing them under the guise of cost-cutting while hiring younger and less experienced physicians months earlier.

Usha Avva, 56, Nina Gold, 55, and Kathleen Reichard, 53 — all board-certified in pediatric emergency medicine — were the oldest pediatricians working in the Emergency Department at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack when they were fired in February. Hospital executives said they were each let go because patient volume had plummeted during the pandemic, according to the lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Essex County Wednesday.

But Hackensack retained the five pediatric emergency room physicians it had hired in 2019 and 2020, the lawsuit said. All were under the age of 40 and none was board-certified in pediatric emergency medicine.

“This is brazen age discrimination by the largest hospital system in the state,” said Bruce McMoran whose firm McMoran, O’Connor, Bramley & Burns is representing the three fired doctors.

“Our clients were frontline healthcare heroes, they gave decades of service to this hospital, but in the end they were escorted from the property by security, unable to say goodbye to their colleagues, and told they were terminated because of a reduction in force necessitated by ‘business needs’. That is unbelievable considering the hospital had recently hired five younger PEM physicians and patient volume had already begun rising in the wake of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

The parent company of Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack Meridian Health, acknowledged the lawsuit on Friday but declined to discuss it. “It is the policy of Hackensack Meridian Health not to comment on pending litigation,” a hospital network spokeswoman said.

All three terminated doctors earned $20,000 bonuses in 2020. The hospital also renewed their contracts for three years in August, the lawsuit said.

They each were terminated on Feb. 17, based on “operational needs” and a “sham” assessment that did not take into account their years of experience, board certification and other teaching and mentoring duties, the lawsuit said.

Hackensack was required to pay them three months severance for a total of $210,000 and continue their health benefits. The hospital kept on part-time and per-diem physicians, the latter earning more per-hour than full-time doctors, the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs also note the hospital received $98 million in pandemic relief to offset financial losses.

Hackensack Meridian Health is one of the largest hospital and health care chains in New Jersey, operating a dozen acute care hospitals.

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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.