WhidbeyHealth Settles Age Discrimination Suit for $1.5 Million

Coupeville, Washington-based WhidbeyHealth has settled an age discrimination suit for $1.5 million. The hospital did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

James Elbaor, M.D., originally filed the age discrimination suit against WhidbeyHealth in U.S. District Court in March 2019, claiming that the hospital’s administrators denied his application to work for the hospital because of his age. Elbaor was 72 at the time he applied to the hospital.

Federal law prohibits discrimination against people who are age 40 and over.

Court records show that a former physician recruiter, the late Preston Moore, had recommended Elbaor to the hospital. Moore later contacted Elbaor and told him that the administrators had passed on him because of his age.

Moore wrote an affidavit stating that two hospital officials told him that they were trying to get rid of two older orthopedic surgeons and replace them with younger ones.

The hospital officials denied that they made those remarks. The hospital also noted that Moore left the hospital after the hospital officials realized that he had given fake Social Security number and lied about his criminal history in his application. The hospital noted that Moore also provided false information about Elbaor.

Officials said that they continued to consider Elbaor after they knew he was in his 70s. They say that the reasons that he was turned down were that they found that Elbaor had a sanction on his medical license, lost a large malpractice lawsuit, was disciplined at one hospital and placed on probation at another one.

The court documents also claim that some of the hospital’s administrators pressured surgeons to perform more surgeries in order to make the hospital more money. One orthopedic surgeon wrote an affidavit that detailed how a clinic manager “in particular tried to get me to perform more surgeries I did not feel were necessary or even medically indicated…She questioned my decisions about why I had not prescribed surgeries for individual patients.”

Elbaor received just over $1 million for compensatory damages according to the terms of the settlement.

In addition to settling the age discrimination lawsuit, WhidbeyHealth agreed to pay $38,000 to resolve a related public records violation. The hospital did not admit any wrongdoing in settling the cases.

Following the settlement, the hospital released a statement saying, “WhidbeyHealth vigorously denied, and continues to deny, engaging in any wrongdoing related to Dr. Elbaor or his attorney…These lawsuits were settled for business and practical reasons given the risks and burdens inherent in any litigation.”