GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – There are new developments surrounding a family medicine office that we’ve been following for the last few weeks after its sudden closure including a recently filed lawsuit.
A fight between the previous owner and practitioner of Carolina East Family Medicine and its new owners, Quasar Health Solutions, is headed to court after the latter filed a lawsuit leveling serious accusations. The practice has been closed for the last several weeks after Dr. Charles Jahrsdorfer took leave for health reasons.
“The way the practice ran prior to the acquisition was different than what Quasar is about,” said Sean Fienberg, Quasar Health Solutions CEO.
Dr. Fienberg and Quasar bought the practice from Dr. Jahrsdorfer last December. The lawsuit says Jahrsdorfer stayed on staff to help with the transition until he fell ill. The lawsuit says quote, “Contrary to what CEFM and Dr. Jahrsdorfer had represented, Quasar had not acquired a legitimate family practice, but a clinic operating like those involved in the opioid epidemic.”
The suit says that the clinic refilled controlled substances without regard for prevailing clinical protocols – and that its patient panel was dominated by users of controlled substances who found it easy to get their prescriptions refilled by Jahrsdorfer.
Read the full lawsuit here:
“Another big problem here in this community, unfortunately, is the dependence on controlled substances. That’s a big, big issue,” said Fienberg.
The lawsuit also says the clinic was overbilling third-party payors for services that never happened.
WITN has been in contact with Dr. Jahrsdorfer’s wife, Doreen Jahrsdorfer, who is also named in the lawsuit and was given a statement by their legal team that reads:
“Dr. Jahrsdorfer was terminated by Quasar Family Medicine while he was out for health-related reasons and has since been sued by Quasar. Because of that lawsuit, we cannot comment further except to state that Dr. Jahrsdorfer vehemently denies all of the allegations and will vigorously defend his rights against Quasar.”
“We had the lead of this practice leave unexpectedly. It put us in a bad situation, and the unfortunate thing is the patients suffered,” said Fienberg.
Fienberg says that staff are actively calling patients to help get medicine refilled. They hope to open the office back up on July 15th.
On Monday our Alyssa Hefner spoke with some of Dr. Jahrsdorfer’s employees and patients who were upset with his firing, saying their doctor is a kind person whose care they miss.
WITN was also told that the office was getting remodeled and that Quasar Health Solutions would also be adding additional medical practices to the office, such as acupuncture, diagnostics and IV therapy.
Copyright 2024 WITN. All rights reserved.
link