No fear mongering.
Hospital decided it wanted cheap quest medicine. Quest apparently decided to bid for hospital AP/CP contract and got it. Group was told the contract was not being renewed. Next day Quest calls and offers job.
I will not say if this is me or a friend. Sorry. Don't have all the details. I can say the area is in the central/mideast part of the country
The way I see it is you can go to hospital admin and try to get contract back but risk job from quest. Or you can take quest job until something better comes up. No buyout.
I have never in all my journeys heard of such a situation as the one you describe. Quest would not do that. There are too many moving parts, not the least of which what would happen if all the current pathologist left town and "spiked the railroad tracks" as they left. No hospital in their right mind would ever risk that. A determined pathology group of any reasonable sense could initiate total chaos in such a situation which is why you only very RARELY see this even in cases where the pathologists themselves are well known idiots.
A.) Pathology contracts at most hospitals are not put out to OPEN bid randomly. Once a group assumes them, they are typically set on an Evergreen type system (ie CLOSED bid). Only in absolutely DIRE circumstances are contracts re-opened once Evergreened more than 1 or 2 cycles. I have tried to bust into contracts where the group not only appeared to be dying, it didnt have a pathologist alive there in a seat! And still the admin deferred to their Evergreen cycle until the group hired someone or got a locums. I figured my success was almost a sure thing, nope. So if I am there kicking down doors like Seal Team Six and still couldnt breech, there is no way Quest (a giant incompetent guerilla for the most part) did this in the manner you describe.
B.) Therefore, the plausible explanation is that the group managing PARTNERS invited Quest into negotiations. These partners took a little something away, some call these Dead Presidents, and then arranged a meet between Quest and the Admin to seal the betrayal. The partners then sold out their clueless employees knowing full well the employees would get a 50%+ salary slash to Quest slave levels.
C.) The partners who know sooner or later the gig will be up are likely listing their homes for sale and planning to retirement to Costa Rica right this very minute.
Here is the big WTF:
What exactly is the hospital getting for cheaper with Quest?? if the hospital already has a TC component, then the pathologists are direct billing to Medicare ANYWAY. Switching pathology groups doesnt save you money here. The ONLY possible savings would be on the Medical Directorship fees, which any Admin type worth anything knows you get what you pay for! Especially since Admin is what they do. I doubt they would hit DEFCON 1 to save 100K...
