Payday has taken 10 years to arrive for the doctors and staff of the former Thomas-Davis Medical Centers.
About 300 former Thomas-Davis employees will get checks ranging from from $500 to $263,000 owed to them by the bankrupt parent company, FPA Medical Management.
All they have to do is wait a little longer.
The local doctors' group made the national news back in 1997 when they made the unusual decision to join a union to fight their employer on increased workloads and cuts in pay and malpractice insurance agreements.
With the backing of their union, the Federation of Physicians and Dentists, and the National Labor Relations Board, the doctors and their staff won an unfair-labor-practices case in federal district court.
But before they could be paid what they were owed as a result of the company's policy changes, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1998. The clinics — which were founded in 1920 and grew to be an important part of the local health-care industry — closed. The doctors and staff members all lost their jobs, and about 150,000 patients were affected.
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The National Labor Relations Board filed a claim for the money in the bankruptcy case on behalf of the doctors and staff members, but it sat unresolved — until now.
In January, the bankruptcy court approved about $6.5 million in claims for back pay and malpractice insurance premiums.
"We fought long and hard for the doctors," said Susan Martin, an attorney for the doctors' union. "I'm so pleased."
George Makol, a physician and now one of two principals at Alvernon Allergy & Asthma PC, expects to receive around $25,000, minus taxes.
But more than the money, the satisfaction is important to him.
"It showed that we were right," he said. "I'm glad it's over. It took 10 years for us to win."
However, it still is frustrating that no one pursued criminal allegations against the company's executives, Makol said.
Now that the bankruptcy issue is resolved, there is the problem of distributing the money. For the past several weeks, the National Labor Relations Board's Phoenix staff has been contacting the former doctors and staff members, many of whom have moved over the years.
The trustee will cut checks to the NLRB, which will send them out by certified mail to the doctors and staff members. Those who are owed money must fill out a tax form so the trustee can properly account for the money.
The trustee is waiting to write the checks until everyone has been contacted, said Cornele Overstreet, the NLRB's regional director. There are about 60 people the board has been unable to contact as of Monday.
"When you have a case that spans more than 10 years, it's sometimes difficult to get everybody interested again. We are bugging people, and we do have a time limit for doing this," Overstreet said. "The trustees have put pressure on us to get this done as soon as possible."
Thomas-Davis timeline
1920 Drs. Charles A. Thomas, a thoracic surgeon, and Stirley C. Davis, a general practitioner, open a clinic in Downtown Tucson.
1979 Thomas- Davis doctors and colleagues with the Tucson Clinic put together a proposal for a federal grant to develop a health-maintenance organization, a new way to manage health care. The clinics got their grant and their HMO, Intergroup.
1983 Thomas-Davis Medical Centers has a medical staff of 60 and five satellite clinics.
1994 The physician-partners of Thomas-Davis sell 15 clinics in Tucson, Green Valley and Phoenix, along with their HMO, to Foundation Health Systems of Rancho Cordoba, Calif., for more than $720 million.
1996 Foundation sells Thomas-Davis to San Diego-based physician management firm FPA Medical Management. Thomas-Davis doctors in Tucson vote 93-32 to join the Federation of Physicians and Dentists. FPA refuses to recognize the union, saying physicians are not entitled to collective bargaining because they supervise their medical staff.
1997 The National Labor Relations Board holds hearings on FPA's alleged unfair labor practices and the doctors win their case.
1998 Six class-action suits alleging securities fraud and insider trading are filed against FPA.
With reported debts of $345 million, FPA secures a $25 million bridge loan and moratorium on existing loans.
FPA executives secretly vote to give themselves $3.5 million in pay hikes and bonuses before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Del.
The Thomas-Davis clinics are closed.
2008 The doctors and their staff are set to receive payments owed from the 1997 case.