This story was originally published by Fresnoland, a nonprofit news organization.
Cultiva La Salud and Fresno Building Healthy Communities’ billion-dollar lawsuit against one of Fresno’s biggest hospital systems will be hashed out behind closed doors – for now.
Attorneys for both parties asked the court to pause the case until June, while the two sides negotiate in private.
The move comes after “several recent productive conferences” that attorneys said could lead to a “potential resolution,” according to court records.
All three groups issued a joint statement to Fresnoland over the weekend.
“Given our shared ultimate mission of community service, we all have agreed that our time and resources are better spent working together. The stay pauses the legal action to give us time to find ways to improve the delivery of medical care to the underserved in our community. By this effort, we also hope to set an example for effective dispute resolution and how hospitals can work with non-profit organizations to prioritize the interests of the people we collectively serve.”
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan approved the joint request Dec. 30.
The Fresno nonprofits first brought forward a complaint against Community Health System, operator of downtown Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center as well as Clovis Community Medical Center, in August 2024.
The complaint accused the hospital operator of misusing $1 billion in taxpayer dollars meant to offset the costs of caring for the downtown hospital’s large share of low-income patients to instead fund lavish upgrades to the campus in affluent Clovis.
It sought a court order demanding the health system stop the alleged misappropriation and instead dedicate funds to improving the downtown hospital’s facilities, equipment and staffing levels.
How did we get here?
Attorneys for Cultiva La Salud and Fresno Building Healthy Communities filed the complaint in Fresno County Superior Court, following an investigation from The Fresno Bee in 2022 into funding disparities between the downtown and Clovis hospitals.
In the months since the filing, Community Health System has petitioned to have the case moved to federal court and asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.
The local nonprofits fought the case’s removal to federal court – where there’s an “ongoing judicial resource emergency,” meaning a severe backlogs of cases for judges. The case was successfully remanded to Fresno County Superior Court as of Dec. 3.
The Dec. 23 joint request says the parties conferred in person that day, following multiple productive discussions.
A case management conference in superior court was on the docket for Feb. 25, but was rescheduled to June 24 as a result of the stay.
What’s next?
Both parties now have the option to either request an extension of the stay or terminate it early.
The earliest a party can “unilaterally” terminate the stay is after March 23, according to court records.
This article first appeared on Fresnoland and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.