A pending $5.9 million sale of Pulaski County Medical Exchange of Little Rock has collapsed into a federal court battle, with PCME accusing the buyers of failing to pay, and causing a delay in patients reaching their doctors.
PCME is seeking a temporary restraining order against MedCom Medical Messaging Inc. of Dallas, the buyer, and its CEO, Chase Wright, to prevent them from soliciting any of PCME’s customers or business, according to the filing in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.
The filing was by attorneys M. Stephen Bingham, Amber Bagley and Brett Taylor of Cross Gunter Witherspoon & Galchus of Little Rock. PCME also wants MedCom to return all of PCME’s property.
In the lawsuit, PCME accuses Wright and MedCom of never intending to pay for PCME’s assets. Its allegations include fraud and breach of contract.
More: Click here to read the complaint against MedCom.
Wright told Arkansas Business that he no longer wants to move forward with the purchase, and he denied the allegations of fraud and breach of contract.
In an email to Arkansas Business, Wright said that Derek Rudkin, PCME’s executive director, has caused irreparable harm to the customer base “by giving false & misleading information to them — even by involving them in a private transaction between our companies. It was unprofessional of him to do this.”
Wright said he is planning to file a counterclaim against PCME. “We are claiming that they have caused harm to the client base and voted to cancel a transaction that was funded,” Wright said. “They violated the terms of the signed agreement.”
PCME is an answering service business that serves doctors, hospitals and patients in central Arkansas. Only Pulaski County Medical Society members are eligible for exchange privileges.
PCME said in its court filings that Wright and MedCom are directly impeding Arkansas patients from receiving care and treatment.
In an affidavit filed in the lawsuit, Rudkin said that MedCom has shut down two call lines and when people dial the number, the recorded message says: “We’re sorry our office is presently closed, please return your call later.”
David Wroten, the executive director of the Arkansas Medical Society, filed an affidavit attached to the case. He said that since Jan. 12, “I have received numerous, urgent messages from Arkansas physician clinics seeking our assistance and advice regarding a series of contradictory emails they received from Derek Rudkin … and PCME followed by emails from MedCom.”
The lawsuit says that MedCom and Wright are improperly controlling three telephone numbers that were transferred to MedCom ahead of the sale, which would have closed at the end of December.
PCME also accused MedCom of not transferring $5.9 million to PCME’s bank account on the day the sale was scheduled to close.
Wright told Arkansas Business that MedCom tried to pay for the company using the bank account information provided by Rudkin via text. But there were errors that prevented the money from being moved, he said.
On Jan. 11, PCME’s board held an emergency meeting and approved revoking its authorization to proceed with the sale and demanded that MedCom return its assets.
Wright said MedCom wasn’t returning the phone numbers to PCME.
“I’m not going to release the numbers back to them unless they want to pay for the time and effort that we spent getting ready for this,” which was about $100,000, Wright said. He also said that some of the customers want to stay with MedCom.
“So they’ve signed up with us,” Wright said. “You know, there’s no noncompete in place.”
As of Wednesday morning a hearing on the PCME’s motion for a temporary restraining order had not been set.
Sign up for Daily E-news
