While Columbia-based Boone Health and Missouri Heart Center will separate in May, Boone Health is asking a court to enforce provisions from a contract that dates to 2016.
Boone Health spokesman Christian Basi tells reporters that Missouri Heart wants to move forward with Heart and Vascular Partners (HVP):
“They have communicated that they intend to open up a competing clinic in Columbia. We believe that that is in direct violation of the contract that we signed with them several years ago,” Mr. Basi says.
Missouri Heart Centers’s statement says the allegations in Boone Health’s lawsuit are legally and factually incorrect. Missouri Heart Center also says it tried to meet with Boone Health’s leadership team and that they refused to engage with them in a meaningful way.
Meantime, Boone Health confirms they are actively working to build a new cardiology team, now that they plan to separate from Missouri Heart Center in May. Boone Health chief medical officer Lana Zerrer briefed reporters this week:
“To date over the past week I’ve interviewed 21 physicians and about five or six other staff … in one week. And I think we’re in a really great place,” Zerrer says.
Boone Health and Missouri Heart Center blame each other for the separation. Boone Health says any active cardiology patients can connect with Missouri Heart until May 6 for prescriptions.