Matria sues National Women’s Health Network
Matria Healthcare of Marietta, GA, announced that it has filed a suit against the National Women’s Health Network (NWHN) based in Washington, DC.
The suit charges that NWHN issued false and misleading statements regarding Matria and its services, which tortiously interfered with Matria’s ability to do business. Matria is a leading national provider of comprehensive obstetrical home care and other maternity management products and services to HMOs, indemnity carriers, and employers.
Its services include the subcutaneous delivery of terbutaline, an agent commonly prescribed by physicians to quiet uterine activity, using a miniature infusion pump. NWHN has questioned the safety of using the terbutaline pump in home settings.
"We believe the statements issued by NWHN were made for the improper purpose of misleading and confusing physicians, to encourage them to hospitalize patients rather than utilize less expensive home care alternatives," says Parker H. Petit, Chairman of the Board of Matria, and founder of Healthdyne, whose Maternity Management subsidiary was one of the two companies that merged to form Matria.
"To have an organization such as the National Women’s Health Network say in public and in print that Matria is putting profits ahead of scientific knowledge’ is outrageous and a huge disservice to the thousands of women and children who are healthy today," Petit adds.
"We cannot in good conscience allow this kind of well-orchestrated campaign of deception to go unchallenged and potentially cause an effective therapy, that has improved the outcomes of thousands of pregnancies, to be denied to the women who need it."
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