A national medical staffing company attempted to take over Eugene Emergency Physicians’ contract to work at local hospitals. Local doctors used a new state law to oppose the measure.

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Between shifts in the emergency room, Dr. Dan McGee was in an Oregon courtroom. He was fighting for his practice: Eugene Emergency Physicians (EEP). The group of more than 40 physicians and physician assistants work in multiple emergency departments; was being replaced by a national company.

“This was a big moment, David and Goliath stuff,” McGee said. “You see 14 of their lawyers sitting there and you see three of ours.”

Those attorneys argued that ApolloMD, the national company, violated Oregon’s corporate practice of medicine law. The 2025 law prohibits corporations from taking control of a medical practice’s operations and finances.

The case sparked national interest because Oregon’s new law targets loopholes that large staffing companies have been using to circumvent the state’s corporate medicine laws.

Money to control

Most states have laws requiring doctors to own medical practices, not corporations. These regulations seek to put the interests of patients before profit motives. In recent years, companies have used a model in which a doctor technically owns the local practice, but as Erin Fuse Brown, a professor at Brown University, explains, those doctor owners are often not involved in care and cede hiring, firing and other operational functions to the corporation.

Fuse Brown said these deals are attractive to hospitals because these companies often promise more revenue and take on the responsibilities that come with running an emergency room.

“There is concern that these investors or these corporate management companies do not fully control the operations and clinical decisions of those who are trained to provide patient care,” Fuse Brown said.

The connection to patient care worried Dr. Jonas Pologe, who works for Eugene Emergency Physicians, in the Eugene, Oregon, area. ApolloMD offered jobs to local doctors, but Pologe worried that if he rejected the decisions ApolloMD made, he could lose hours of work.