FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Mickey Schulte

North Central EMS Corporation/Savvik Buying Group

(713) 504-7737

Lawsuit Filed Against Bound Tree MedicalFor Violating Pricing Agreement

North Central EMS Corporation dba Savvik Buying Group files lawsuit claiming Bound Tree knowingly violated its contracts and inappropriately charged Savvik members on life-saving medical equipment

St. Cloud, Minn. – June 5, 2015 – Savvik filed a lawsuit on June 3, 2015 against Bound Tree Medical, LLC and its parent company Sarnova, Inc. The suit demonstrates how Bound Tree Medical knowingly and willingly violated both the letter and spirit of its agreements with Savvik, which were designed to help emergency medical services (EMS) organizations across the nation secure the best prices for medical products and services. The suit also demonstrates Bound Tree Medical’s overcharging of some Savvik EMS members with the intent of increasing its own profits.

“Bound Tree Medical has engaged in strong-arming tactics in what appears to be an attempt to increase their profits,”says Mickey Schulte, Savvik’s Executive Director. Savvik is a nonprofit buying group which works to assure that local Public Safety organizations get the best pricing on products and services used to save lives in the field every day.

“We have brought litigation against Bound Tree Medical and Sarnova as a result of their unwillingness to follow the express terms of their agreements with us, which were designed to provide our associations and members with the very best buying environment and price assurances,” added Schulte.

The lawsuit demonstrates how Bound Tree Medical and Sarnova have violated their contracts with Savvik in many ways including:

  • Overcharging hundreds of members on thousands of transactions
  • Cutting “sweetheart” deals to help some customers while penalizing others
  • Penalizing small EMS organizations in terms of pricing just because they are small
  • Agreeing to a market competitiveness guarantee, but selling to members at prices above market
  • Selling around the contracts with Savvik to entice larger EMS purchasers to leave the buying group

“The public deserves their dollars to be spent wisely – from the smallest community fire department to the largest metropolitan health organization. We have the ultimate goal of helping all our associations and members save lives and money,”says Schulte.

North Central EMS Corp. v. Bound Tree Medical, LLC,No. 27-CV-15-9676 (Hennepin Dist. Ct. 2015)

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