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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against Baxter Health and Interventional Pain Management Associates following an investigation into wrongful termination claims by a former employee for her opposition to the sexual harassment of a co-worker.
The suit was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. No rebuttal has been filed by Baxter Health or IMPA at this time.
In a statement to the Observer, Baxter Health stressed its commitment to a harassment-free work environment, while also stating that the fired employee was never actually an employee of Baxter Health.
“At Baxter Health, we are dedicated to creating and maintaining an environment that is safe, respectful, and free from any form of harassment,” said Baxter Health in its statement. “We consider this commitment not just an ethical imperative but a fundamental part of our responsibility as an organization. As such, we are committed to a comprehensive and impartial investigation of all allegations and cooperated with the EEOC’s investigation. However, it is important to clarify that the individual who filed this complaint was not, at any point in time, an employee of Baxter Health, and Baxter Health in fact had no involvement in or influence over IPMA’s decision to terminate the individual’s employment.”
According to the EEOC filing in court, Baxter Health and IMPA allegedly have been engaging in unlawful employment practices since April of 2022 following Hillary-Paige Potter’s support of another employee during her sexual harassment complaint against Dr. Ronald Tilley, who owned IMPA alongside Dr. Ira Chatman at the time.
Potter was hired by IPMA in Feb. of 2018, and received a $5,000 signing bonus from Baxter Health. Baxter Health is alleged to have handled Potter’s hiring paperwork and other hiring actions during her hiring at IPMA.
The suit alleges that Baxter Health hired all medical assistants, front-end staff, coders, managers, and registered nurses for the doctors at IPMA. The EEOC alleges that Section 3.01 of Potter’s employment agreement states “Physician Assistant agrees to engage in, on or before March 2018, and continuously thereafter in the Hospital’s Integrative Pain Center in Mountain Home, Arkansas.”
Baxter Health refers to IPMA as a “department of Baxter” on their website. IPMA refers to itself as a department of Baxter on its letterhead. IPMA billing is conducted through Baxter’s billing department.
It is unknown if Potter was a regular W-2 employee or was under a different kind of employment contract for IPMA.
The lead-up to Potter’s firing
According to the EEOC filing, in April of 2019, a coworker of Potter complained to her that Dr. Tilley was sexually harassing her, prompting Potter to encourage the employee to report the sexual harassment to IPMA Office Manager Diane Holmes, a then-employee of Baxter, not IPMA.
Potter is alleged to have also advocated for telling Dr. Chatman and Baxter’s Human Resource Department. At some point, Holmes reported the complaint to human resources at Baxter Health herself, which opened an internal investigation into the complaint.
The EEOC states that Potter was interviewed as a part of that investigation.
Following the investigation, Dr. Tilley took leave in the form of a “sabbatical” according to the lawsuit. Dr. Tilley is no longer listed as working at IPMA on their website. An internet search reveals that Tilley helped set up a new specialty clinic for White River Health in Mountain View in August.
Following her participation in the investigation, Potter is claimed to have gone on maternity leave in July of 2019. Upon her return, the suit alleges that Dr. Chatman confronted Potter and told her that “she was an instigator and that if he could prove she was the one who reported Tilly, she would never work in northwest Arkansas again”.
Chatman is also alleged to have required Potter to begin driving to Harrison, Arkansas for work despite previously telling her that she would not have to make the drive while she had an infant. He is also alleged to have taken away her every-other-Friday off and replaced it with a half day off on Wednesday.
According to the EEOC suit, on March 2, 2022, Chatman informed Potter she needed to resign no later than June 29, 2022. The suit alleges that Chatman wanted Potter to resign so that Tilley could return to work at IPMA.
It is then alleged that Chatman told Potter that she and Tilley could not work together because of Potter’s involvement in the sexual harassment complaint and that Tilly “held a grudge against her.”
The suit further alleges that Chatman told Potter she had “painted with the brush of being a rabble-rouser and brought all of this [sexual harassment stuff] and created a hostile work environment.”
Potter also claimed that Chatman said, “Diane Holmes leaving was part of the same process.”
On April 5, 2022, the suit claims Potter informed Chatman that she would not resign, and also declined to sign a severance agreement prohibiting her from discussing the circumstances of her departure from IPMA.
The suit states that Potter was fired on April 29, 2022. Potter is requesting a jury trial to seek relief from being wrongfully terminated by Baxter Health and IPMA.
Baxter Health and IPMA have not filed a rebuttal to the EEOC’s claims in court at this time. This continues to be a developing story.
The EEOC lawsuit can be found below.
