Top Woman at NME Files Suit Charging Sex Discrimination : Workplace: National Medical says it will protest “vigorously” against allegations that include harassment.
The top woman executive of National Medical Enterprises filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the large hospital company and several top officials Monday, claiming she was recently passed over for the firm’s chief executive position because she is a woman.
Nita P. Heckendorn, 50, an executive vice president of National Medical, also alleged in her suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that she has been repeatedly subjected to sexual harassment during her 12-year career with the company. The suit seeks damages of more than $15 million.
National Medical spokesman David Olson said the company was shocked by Heckendorn’s allegations. It will “protest the action vigorously,” he said.
National Medical fired Heckendorn late Monday after learning of the lawsuit, said Peggy Garrity, a Santa Monica attorney representing Heckendorn.
The lawsuit is the latest in a string of scandals for National Medical, one of the nation’s largest operators of psychiatric hospitals. The Santa Monica-based company faces civil lawsuits from 12 large insurers, accusing it of submitting more than $750 million in fraudulent billings. It also faces more than 100 lawsuits alleging physical mistreatment and abuse of patients.
Heckendorn’s suit follows the resignations last month of company founders Richard K. Eamer as chairman and Leonard Cohen as vice chairman. Industry observers viewed the resignations as an effort by Jeffrey Barbakow, chairman and chief executive, to distance the company from the management problems associated with the two founders and restore faith in the firm.
Barbakow, an outside director of National Medical since 1990, was named president and chief executive in April and tapped as chairman in June. His appointment raised some eyebrows on Wall Street because he had no experience in running a health care company. He was chief executive and president of MGM/UA Communications Co. from 1988 to 1990.
Heckendorn, who has 25 years of experience in the health care field, alleged that she was passed over for the chief executive’s job in favor of Barbakow “because of her sex and the refusal of several directors of NME to deal with a woman in the position of CEO.”
She said that when she complained about salary and promotion issues, the company excluded her from meetings and forced her resignation as a director and member of the executive committee.
The suit names as defendants Barbakow and company directors Raymond A. Hay, Maurice J. DeWald and Peter de Wetter.
The suit accuses Hay, an outside director, of repeatedly making sexually derogatory remarks to Heckendorn.
It cites one incident during a board meeting in which Hay allegedly asked Heckendorn “if the rise in her skirt was commensurate with her rise in the company.” It alleges that DeWald would refer to her only as “babe” during board meetings.
“DeWald’s comments were repeatedly made in the presence of National Medical directors, whose inaction clearly conveyed the message that such disparaging and discriminatory comments were condoned by them,” the suit says.
