Posted: July 4, 2016 - 11:14pm | Updated: July 4, 2016 - 11:36pm
PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM The University of St. Augustine building in 2015.
By JAKE MARTIN
jake.martin@staugustine.com
Note to readers: This is the second Record story following lawsuits against the University of St. Augustine filed by former students who claim the school misled them to enroll in its now-defunct Master of Orthopedic Physician Assistant program. Go to http://bit.ly/298G3UO to read the story from our Dec. 20 edition.
A lawsuit filed against the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences on June 16 is at least the fifth brought forward by former students claiming the school misled them to enroll in its now-defunct Master of Orthopedic Physician Assistant program.
Launched in May 2011 on the school’s St. Augustine campus, the MOPA program was packaged as a two-year graduate program consisting of six trimesters of didactic and clinical study with a tuition price tag north of $70,000. According to USA’s 2015-16 General Catalog, the program, which had been renamed and moved to the school’s campus in Austin, Texas, was no longer accepting new students.
Court documents show 36 former students in five complaints, all of which were filed with the 7th Judicial Circuit and assigned to Judge Howard Maltz, have claimed they enrolled in the program under the impression they would be able to practice as licensed PAs with specialized training in orthopedics, thus making them more desirable for employment after graduation.
As written in multiple complaints: “Before and after each Plaintiff enrolled, USA represented to Plaintiffs that its MOPA Program was unique and superior to other PA programs because it offered specialized training, and USA possessed faculty for its MOPA Program ‘renowned from all corners of the world.’”
Just months before the inaugural class of the program was set to graduate, however, USA informed students and faculty the program’s name would be changing to Master of Orthopedic Assistant as the “orthopedic physician assistant” profession was not licensable in the state of Florida and professionals working under the OPA title would practice under the same statute allowing medical assistants and other unlicensed professionals to practice.
Students questioned whether their investment of nearly two years and more than $100,000 in tuition, fees and living expenses would be worth a degree granting them no more freedom to practice medicine in Florida than a high school diploma could have accomplished.
According to the latest complaint, Jessica Johnson, of Knox County, Tennessee, graduated from the inaugural class of the MOPA program in August 2013 and soon after began working as a “physician assistant with orthopedic specialty” in Tennessee. Johnson claims she was notified by the Tennessee Department of Health on April 2 she would no longer be permitted to work in the state under that title and that the department on April 22 revoked her OPA license.
“USA had actual knowledge that it had not applied to the State of Tennessee for recognition of its MOPA Program to enable its students to legally work in Tennessee,” the complaint said. “Despite USA’s knowledge that the MOPA Program would not permit its students, including Johnson, to work as a PA or OPA, USA proceeded to market and offer the MOPA Program to students anyway and concealed the shortcomings of the program for commercial gain.”
According to Johnson’s complaint, as well as depositions and documents filed in a related case, the university in October 2014 applied to the TDOH for approval of the MOPA program so graduates could potentially attain licensure in Tennessee, but that the request was ultimately denied in July 2015.
Johnson is seeking damages resulting from the school’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent concealment. As of Friday, the school was yet to file a response and there were no hearings scheduled.
The first complaint against USA for its MOPA program, filed Aug. 12, 2013, was submitted by plaintiffs Michelle Hemingway, Holly Wheeler, Christina Mollica and Lauren Hofius. Hemingway and Mollica were identified as residents of St. Johns County at the time of the original complaint. In an amended complaint filed Sept. 12, 2013, the four sought damages resulting from the school’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and negligent misrepresentation.
More than two years into the proceedings, they are once again demanding a trial by jury in a second amended complaint filed May 23 that also tacked on two additional plaintiffs and a charge of fraudulent concealment.
Court documents show the four original plaintiffs continued their education elsewhere and/or found work in the health care field in some capacity. The two new plaintiffs in the case are Elihu Watts and Dustin Janzen, but no education and/or employment statuses were available as of Friday.
Kevin Jakab, founder and managing attorney at Jakab Law in Jacksonville, is representing Hemingway, et al. He had told The Record in December the school refused to give the plaintiffs a refund prior to filing the suit and that a proposal for settlement served by USA to his clients on Oct. 26 was insufficient “given the facts and nature of the case and the damages at issue.”
USA, in its answer and affirmative defenses filed Feb. 11, 2014, denied any responsibility, liability or legal fault for any damages sought by Hemingway, et al. in their amended complaint.
USA said the students waived any claims based on a breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, and/or negligent misrepresentation by accepting the benefits of the MOPA program, performing under the school’s Enrollment Agreement, and by participating in the MOPA program.
But the proceedings have continued, resulting in a case docket that’s 366 documents deep with more to come. The latest filing came June 13, with USA’s motion to dismiss the second amended complaint, or, in the alternative, to strike irrelevant allegations.
The majority of USA’s motion challenged the claim it breached a fiduciary duty to the students through the alleged acts, omissions and misrepresentations, which it claimed were insubstantial.
“Plaintiffs allege that because USA is an educational institution, a fiduciary duty is automatically imposed,” the motion said. “However, Florida law does not automatically establish a fiduciary relationship between a student and a university ... Plaintiffs fail to allege that USA undertook to advise, counsel, or protect Plaintiffs and further fails to allege any underlying facts to support such an allegation.”
There is a hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Sept. 15 in Maltz’s chambers.
The matter of licensure in Tennessee, as referenced in Johnson’s complaint, comes up in the Hemingway, et al. case with an amended motion for leave to file the second amended complaint dated March 11.
“One example, among many others, of USA’s fraudulent concealment relates to USA’s misrepresentations regarding the potential for its students to be licensed practitioners in the State of Tennessee,” the motion said. “Prior to USA’s launch of the MOPA program in May 2011, and at all other material times, USA continually represented to Plaintiffs, and all other MOPA students, they could become licensed physician extenders in Tennessee.”
According to a deposition of Maegan Carr Martin, executive director of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, taken on July 9, 2015, graduates of USA’s MOPA program — upon also passing a certification exam — would not be permitted to legally practice as OPAs in Tennessee.
“Not unless and until the program was approved by the committee, which has not yet occurred,” she said.
Martin acknowledged two graduates of USA’s MOPA program were issued licenses as OPAs in Tennessee but that those licenses were neither correctly nor validly issued.
She said there were only as many as 24 OPAs practicing in Tennessee at the time. She also said the committee was waiting to make its determination on the validity of USA’s MOPA program before taking any action on the affected licenses.
The committee issued its negative decision on USA’s application the day after Martin’s deposition.
Mixed results
In between the complaints filed by Hemingway, et al. and Johnson were three others.
A complaint filed against USA and three school officials by former student Leslie Jennings on March 23, 2015, leveled 10 charges against the defendants including fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent suppression, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and negligence. The case was closed via a stipulation for dismissal filed by both parties on April 14 of this year, with each party bearing its own costs and attorney’s fees. The defendants had filed no response to Jennings’ claims. In her complaint, Jennings was identified as an Alabama resident who had graduated from the inaugural class of the MOPA program.
The next complaint, filed April 9, 2015, was submitted by 27 plaintiffs, three of whom were identified as St. Johns County residents at the time of the complaint. That case was dismissed with prejudice on Nov. 17, with each party bearing its own costs and attorney’s fees.
Jakab had said representation for the plaintiffs behind that complaint had reached out to him prior to filing their suit and essentially used his complaint as a template. Jakab also said although the school had reached a swift resolution with that larger group, USA seems to be taking a somewhat harder line against his clients.
As written in a statement from USA in December regarding the ongoing litigation: “At all times the institution and this program met all necessary accreditation and license requirements and the institution accurately explained and described both the purpose of the program and its approvals to its students. The University has resolved litigation with the largest group of former students, and is disappointed that litigation with a small number of students remains.”
Yet another complaint against the school, filed Nov. 13, 2015, by former student Tiffany Stephens, is still open. As of Friday, however, there were no hearings scheduled and the last entry on the court docket was a motion put forward by the school on Jan. 15 to dismiss the complaint or, in the alternative, to strike irrelevant allegations.
Stephens’ complaint levels four charges against the school: breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. According to the complaint, Stephens is a resident of St. Johns County who had enrolled in the MOPA program in August 2012 after taking out private loans in amounts suggested by USA to cover the costs of tuition, fees and living expenses
Stephens claims she withdrew from the program after she became aware of a series of misrepresentations regarding her ability to practice as a PA and/or OPA in Florida and other states — and that she had asked for a refund and was denied.
“USA was aware of the [l]imitations of the MOPA program prior to launching it, knew or should have known that the title of the program would cause confusion among potential students and future employers, [knew or] should have known that students who practiced as PAs and/or OPAs after graduating from the MOPA program would subject themselves to criminal liability, and proceeded to market and offer the program to Plaintiffs anyway for financial gain,” the complaint said.
The motion to dismiss filed by USA reads similar to the one filed in response to the second amended complaint in the Hemingway, et al. case, particularly in regard to breach of fiduciary duty claims. The school also said Stephens’ negligent misrepresentation claims lacked specificity in terms of who made the representations and when.
“The absence of particularity makes it impossible for the Court to evaluate whether such facts actually state a legal claim for fraud or not,” the motion said. “Moreover, the absence of particularity creates undue prejudice to USA in defending ambiguous sweeping allegations, all leading towards a jury trial on unspecified fraud.”
The university’s media relations department did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
USA officials in their depositions have acknowledged confusion regarding the differences between the physician assistant and orthopedic physician assistant professions. Ultimately, marketing materials for the MOPA program — now MOA — were revised.
The school’s 2015-16 General Catalog, addressing the program’s name change in May 2013, said it became apparent the professional credentialing bodies and associations would be best served by moving forward with the change “to provide clarity and decrease confusion between the two professions.”
“It is expected that graduates will continue to practice under the direct supervision and responsibility of a licensed orthopaedic surgeon (except in Tennessee), and there were no changes made to the curriculum,” the catalog said. “Currently the graduate of the Master of Orthopaedic Assistant program does not practice with a license, nor is the profession licensed in any states. Graduates will practice under the license and supervision of the orthopaedic surgeon.”
The school
USA, originally known as the Institute of Graduate Health Sciences, was founded by Stanley V. Paris in 1979. The institute moved to St. Augustine in 1991 and changed its name to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in 1997.
Paris retired as the university’s first president in 2007, but returned in 2009 as its third president. On April 16, 2011, Wanda Nitsch became the fourth president and Paris assumed the role of chancellor.
USA was a Florida for-profit corporation before converting into a California limited liability company on Nov. 21, 2013. It has other campuses in Miami, San Marcos, California, and Austin, Texas. The university’s administrative headquarters is in California.
In November 2013, Paris sold 80 percent of his full stake in USA to Baltimore-based Laureate International Universities network.
According to its website, Laureate’s network of more than 80 campus-based and online universities offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 1 million students in 28 countries.
Laureate’s holdings include just five institutions in the U.S. but 31 in Central and South America. Eleven of its 12 Middle East institutions are in Saudi Arabia, with another in Jordan.
A report published Oct. 2 on Bloomberg.com said Laureate, that same day, filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with a $100 million placeholder, used to calculate registration fees. According to that report, Laureate in April had been interviewing banks for a $1 billion offering in the U.S. that would have valued the company at about $5 billion.
Meanwhile, a Baltimore Sun report published just three days later said Laureate has lost money every year since 2010 and that it had racked up $4.7 billion in debt.
According to a CNBC.com report on for-profit education published Dec. 15, former President Bill Clinton served as “honorary chancellor” to Laureate’s colleges and universities, collecting more than $16 million until his wife, Hillary Clinton, began her White House run. Federal tax returns posted on Hillary Clinton’s campaign website show Laureate paid Bill Clinton $16.5 million between 2010 and 2015.
Laureate, in its IPO prospectus, indicated it was aware of at least three lawsuits filed against USA regarding its MOPA program.
“We believe the claims in these cases are without merit and intend to defend vigorously against the allegations,” the prospectus said. “Under the terms of the acquisition agreement for St. Augustine, we expect to be indemnified by the seller for substantially all of the liability with respect to any claims in this case. We also have a right of set-off against the seller for such amounts.”
COMMENTS
Bigjosh92 07/05/16 - 01:44 am 41Univ of St Augustine should be ashamed
The school needs to give the money
back to these students. They gave them
Degrees that are worthless and cost
the students over $70,000 per person
plus 2 years of their life for nothing! It's
a fraud and I hope the school learns it
can't defraud students like this.
Firstcoaster 07/05/16 - 07:44 am 41Student Loan Program
This is what happens when almost unlimited government backed loans are available for education. The student loan program has pushed tuition costs off the scale.
Follow the money..
No comments:
Post a Comment