Hospital’s lawsuit alleges patient-poaching by doctor, rival health system

Saint Peter’s Healthcare System is suing a doctor and a competing health system alleging they conspired to divert patients and lucrative medical procedures away from the New Brunswick hospital, endangering its financial future.

In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Middlesex County on Wednesday, Saint Peter’s claims that Dr. Maureen Cernadas illegally used her power as the head of a busy regional OBGYN practice and information she obtained as a Saint Peter’s board member to plot with RWJBarnabas Health, one of the state’s largest hospital systems, to lure patients away from Saint Peter’s to a Barnabas hospital nearby.

Saint Peter’s alleges that Cernadas and Barnabas had access to critical information about the financial importance that referrals from Cernadas’ practice had on the Saint Peter’s bottom line. This information, collected as a result of discussions about a potential merger between the two systems that was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission in 2022, was supposed to remain confidential, the suit claims.

According to the lawsuit, Barnabas sought to “target” the most “economically important area of care” at Saint Peter’s to jeopardize its future. Referrals and hospital-based care associated with Cernadas and her associates generated roughly $28 million for Saint Peter’s in 2025, it says.

“As part of this scheme, the health care giant set out to acquire Saint Peters’ surgical and delivery practices by poaching the Brunswick Hills practice headed by Dr. Cernadas, and exploiting Dr. Cernadas’ position on Saint Peters’ Board to steer Saint Peters’ patients to Barnabas Health,” the lawsuit says.

Barnabas operates a slew of hospitals in central and northern New Jersey, including Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, a teaching hub for Rutgers University’s clinical programs that sits just a mile from Saint Peter’s University Hospital. Saint Peter’s has just one hospital, the one in New Brunswick, that is respected for its maternal healthcare.

George Helmy, executive vice president for RWJBarnabas Health, said the company has not sought or used any confidential Saint Peter’s information and said the allegations in the lawsuit are meritless.

“Where a mother chooses to deliver her baby is a deeply personal decision, made in consultation with the physician she trusts. Physicians are free to choose where they practice, and patients are free to seek care where they choose. We are proud that more families and providers entrust their care to RWJBarnabas Health, New Jersey’s academic health system, every day,” Helmy said in a statement.

A call and email to attorneys representing Cernadas in a separate matter were not returned Thursday.

Cernadas led a practice called Brunswick Hills OB/GYN that referred patients to Saint Peter’s to deliver babies, for surgeries, or for other hospital treatments, according to the lawsuit. She was also on staff at Saint Peter’s for three decades, it says, and held leadership positions there since 2019. In 2023, she became a member of the health system’s board.

The Saint Peter’s merger negotiations with Barnabas began in 2019, according to the lawsuit, and both sides exchanged detailed financial and operational information and signed a mutual confidentiality agreement that is still binding.

Starting in 2024, Cernadas began “covert discussions” with Barnabas about redirecting her referrals from Saint Peter’s to Robert Wood Johnson hospital, the suit claims.

The following year she sent a letter to a handful of patients suggesting she would be transitioning to the Barnabas system, a letter the lawsuit alleges was “intended to sow doubt and confusion” about the quality of care at Saint Peter’s.

While Cernadas continued to tell Saint Peter’s leaders she was not leaving, she took additional steps to align with Barnabas, the suit claims.

In the spring of 2026 she visited staff at Saint Peter’s with bagels, doughnuts, and flyers to advertise a new practice she was forming with eight other doctors from Brunswick Hills, a group that said it planned to refer patients to Barnabas starting next year, according to the suit.

Saint Peter’s is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, and more.