Lawsuit Filed for Reimbursement in Virtua vs. Trinity Health Dispute over Acquisition of Lourdes Health System

In a federal court in New Jersey, Virtua Health has filed a lawsuit against Trinity Health seeking reimbursement for legal fees and other costs totaling over $12 million related to a 2019 transaction between the two nonprofit health systems. The dispute between the two systems stems from Virtua’s acquisition of the Lourdes Health System from Trinity, which was challenged by another South Jersey hospital, Deborah Heart & Lung Center in Browns Mills.

Deborah claimed that the sale to Virtua would violate a contract they had with Lourdes regarding cardiology services in Burlington County. In anticipation of legal action, Virtua refused to finalize the deal unless Trinity agreed to indemnify Virtua for any losses resulting from Deborah’s lawsuit. Trinity accepted this requirement as evidenced by an added indemnity clause in the sales agreement.

However, despite resolving the litigation with Deborah in September, Trinity is now refusing to pay the $12 million owed to Virtua. According to the complaint, this amount is only a small fraction of Trinity’s litigation budget considering its $21.6 billion revenue in fiscal 2023. Based in Livonia, Michigan, Trinity operates 101 hospitals across 27 states.

Virtua declined to comment on the ongoing litigation while Trinity did not respond to requests for comment. This is not the first time that a South Jersey health system has taken legal action against Trinity over the sale of Lourdes; Cooper University Health Care previously backed out of a deal in 2017 and attempted to recover $15 million it had put in escrow, which was decided by a federal jury in 2022 to go to Trinity.