A hospital tried to replace them. These Oregon physicians fought back — and won
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An Oregon emergency physician group beat back a hospital's attempt to replace it with a national staffing firm, offering independent practices a playbook built on physician unity, advocacy and corporate practice of medicine law.
What do you do when a hospital decides to replace your independent physician group with a corporate staffing company? For this group of physicians, the answer was simple: fight back.
In the fall of 2025, Eugene Emergency Physicians (EEP) learned that after more than 35 years of serving the community, its emergency medicine contract would be awarded to an out-of-state corporate medical group. Recognizing that this action contradicted Oregon's corporate practice of medicine laws, EEP took action. They organized colleagues, contacted legislators and engaged the media. When those efforts failed, the group took legal action, filing an emergency injunction.
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Editor's note: Episode timestamps and transcript produced using AI tools.
0:00 Cold open: do physicians still have power in corporate medicine?
1:02 Meet Bianca Jacobs and Dan McGee of Eugene Emergency Physicians.
1:45 PeaceHealth closes University District Hospital over the group's warnings.
2:42 What the closure cost: lost beds and Oregon's capacity crisis.
4:20 PeaceHealth puts the contract out for bid and picks ApolloMD.
5:07 Scapegoated for emergency department wait times.
6:57 Senate Bill 951 and the "friendly physician" loophole.
8:28 The group closes ranks and signs a 90-day pledge.
11:17 More than 450 medical staff push back; physicians vote no confidence.
12:57 Nurses follow, and the fight goes to the governor, legislators and the media.
14:08 A law with no teeth: no one could enforce it.
15:57 Running out of time as job offers pile up.
17:27 The only path left is the courtroom.
18:13 Assembling the legal team and the injunction request.
19:44 Dramatic hearings and three plaintiffs, including an 8-year-old patient.
21:50 Bracing for a personal attack on cross-examination.
22:28 The "scab" posts and the judge who stopped the questioning.
27:32 Holes punched in the bid-scoring process.
27:54 PeaceHealth returns to the table and ApolloMD walks away.
28:42 No legal fees recovered, and AAEM's backing.
29:00 A call to medical societies and the advocacy playbook.
30:41 The locums leverage and refusing to roll over.
32:10 Closing advice and sign-off.