Phonedoctorx, LLC v. Healthbridge Management, Inc.

58 F. Supp. 3d 152, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158148, 2014 WL 5801594
District Court, D. Massachusetts·Decided November 7, 2014·No. Civil No. 12-12281-FDS·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

SAYLOR, District Judge.

This is an action for breach of contract. Plaintiff PhoneDOCTORx provided telem-[155]*155edicine services to various health care facilities from 2006 to 2012. It alleges that those facilities failed to pay for all services utilized. Plaintiff originally brought suit against fourteen health care facilities, but has since dismissed its claims against all but four. Prior to the stipulation of dismissal, the fourteen original defendants brought counterclaims for breach of contract and under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A, contending that PhoneDOCTORx improperly demanded payment for services that it did not provide. Jurisdiction is based on diversity of citizenship.

Defendants have moved for summary judgment on plaintiffs breach of contract claim and have joined with the ten other counterclaim-plaintiffs in moving for summary judgment on the counterclaims. Plaintiff has cross-moved for summary judgment on the counterclaims. For the reasons set forth below, defendants’ motion as to plaintiffs claims will be granted in part and denied in part, plaintiffs motion on the counterclaims will be granted in part and denied in part, and counterclaim-plaintiffs’ motion will be denied.

I. Background

Unless otherwise noted, the following facts are undisputed.

A. Factual Background

PhoneDOCTORx is a Massachusetts LLC and a provider of telemedicine services in Massachusetts. Healthbridge Management, LLC, and Healthbridge Management, Inc., now known as DES Holding, Inc., manage and oversee the operations of various health-care and nursing facilities, including those that are party to this suit.

On January 10, 2006, PhoneDOCTORx entered into a contract with 221 Fitzgerald Drive Operating Company, LLC, d/b/a New Bedford Health Care Center (“New Bedford Health”), a skilled nursing facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The contract was for a one-year term and automatically renewed for additional one-year terms unless either party terminated the contract with 90 days’ written notice.

The contract is seven pages long. Under the contract, PhoneDOCTORx was to provide various health-care related services to New Bedford Health. Those services were divided into two categories: “traditional services” and “telemedicine.”

Under the category “traditional services,” PhoneDOCTORx agreed to twelve itemized obligations for a fixed monthly fee of $2,000. Among the obligations were (1) to “provide AHP’s and physicians necessary to provide regular visits to [New Bed-ford Health] as medically necessary”; (2) to “provide physicians who with the assistance of AHP’s will complete initial History and Physicals, thirty and sixty day visit evaluations, and discharge evaluations on all [PhoneDOCTORx] patients at [New Bedford Health]”; (3) to “provide physicians and AHP’s to complete additional on-site evaluations of [Phone DOCTORx’s] patients at [New Bedford Health], as deemed medically necessary”; and (4) to “meet with patients and families on a schedule, or on an as needed, basis.” (PI. Mem. Ex. 4 at 3) (mistakes in original).1 Nothing in that category specifically addresses telephone calls or the provision of medical services at a distance.

Under the category “telemedicine,” the contract provided as follows:

[156]*156In addition to the “more traditional” services outlined above ...
[PhoneDOCTORx] will provide telemedi-cine coverage for medical problems that arise during the course of one of their patient’s stay.
[Phone DoctorX] shall provide medical coverage services for [New Bedford Health] patients during the hours listed below:
[PhoneDOCTORx] shall staff a Telem-edicine Call Center with AHP/physician during the hours of 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM Monday through Friday and 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Saturday and Sunday.... Triage function to determine whether a patient can be treated through a telem-edicine encounter, or whether a patient needs to be transferred to a hospital emergency room.
Telemedicine evaluation and treatment for medical problems.
Orders for laboratory tests and/or radio-graphic studies may be given during said telemedicine covering encounter. If necessary, such orders may be faxed or phoned directly to [New Bedford Health] by the covering telemedicine physician.
A physician or AHP [allied health professional] will be available via telephone for follow up of the telemedicine encounter if said telemedicine encounter resulted in a diagnostic study being ordered. All telemedicine treatments will result in a medical record being created and a copy of the same will be timely routed to [New Bedford Health] for incorporation into its medical record.
Install, operate, maintain and retain ownership of the [PhoneDOCTORx] patent-protected software and related process, to be installed on hardware provided by [New Bedford Health] (as listed below).

(PL Mem., Ex. 4 at 4 (emphasis and mistakes in original)). The term “telemedi-cine” was not defined. There is no specific reference to video communications.

As for New Bedford Health’s obligations, the contract provided, among other things, as follows:

[New Bedford Health] will purchase or lease necessary compatible telemedicine computer hardware.
[New Bedford Health] will provide all connectivity to said telemedicine unit. As is the case with all calls to physicians from [New Bedford Health] facilities, [New Bedford Health] will provide a nurse who will present the patient to the [PhoneDOCTORx] telemedicine physician/AHP and to assist in the collection of data in the telemedicine encounter, as medically necessary.
To remit monthly payments of ... $8,200.00, per month, per facility for connectivity, access to the aforementioned patent-protected software and program, and the baseline ninety (90) telemedicine calls per facility, per month to [PhoneDOCTORx], within thirty days of the close of each month.

(Id. at 4-5).

In the section labeled “Financial Terms,” the contract stated, in part, as follows:

The telemedicine services identified below are based on representations and best estimates from [New Bedford Health] staff that a 6 hour telemedicine shift might trigger 3 calls from a facility. In consideration of connectivity into the [PhoneDOCTORx] network of medical coverage, use of [PhoneDOCTORx’s] patent protected, software [sic ] and timely access to a [PhoneDOCTORx] covering physician via telemedicine, including ninety (90) telemedicine calls per [157]*157facility, per month, [New Bedford Health] shall pay [PhoneDOCTORx], Eight Thousand, Two Hundred dollars ($8,200.00) per month. Calls from a facility over 90 shall be charged at a fair market rate of ninety dollars ($90.00) per call.

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Phonedoctorx, LLC v. Healthbridge Management, Inc., 58 F. Supp. 3d 152, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158148, 2014 WL 5801594 (D. Mass. 2014).

58 F. Supp. 3d 152 (Phonedoctorx, LLC v. Healthbridge Management, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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