WARREN — An executive with the Steward Medical Group called “:frivolous” the lawsuit recently filed by a Boardman doctor who accused the group of illegally paying him to make refferrals to other physicians within the Steward Group.

Dr. Roger Mitty, senior vice president of the Steward Medical Group, said the claims made by Dr. Adil Jaffer, who lives in Canfield, “have no basis in law or fact.”

The suit filed March 4 by attorney John Moran on behalf of Jaffer seeks relief to “fully, fairly and justly compensate him for his losses from his firing from the practice.” It calls for punitive and compensatory damages, as well as front and back pay and any attorney fees incurred by the doctor.

In August 2018, SMG purchased Jaffer’s private practice and agreed to re-employ Jaffer as an SMG physician. However, SMG at the time did not incorporate into its network all of the providers and facilities to whom Jaffer had grown comfortable referring his patients, the lawsuit states.

The salary rate SMG proposed for Jaffer was noticeably above what a family physician would typically earn in this area, the lawsuit noted. When the doctor expressed concerns about the aggressive salary rate, the lawsuit noted, several SMG officials dismissed these concerns.

Despite prior assurances, when Jaffer started referring his patients to the physicians and facilities he had built a relationship with during the previous 20 years, he encountered criticism from his new SMG bosses, the lawsuit states. This criticism arose because SMG would not reap the benefits if the referral had not been through its own network of resources, the lawsuit states.

Jaffer, who lives on Dorado Beach Drive in Canfield, was terminated by SMG on Dec. 30, 2019. During that meeting, the SMG regional medical director allegedly said to Jaffer: “The only thing you did wrong was you did not support the (SMG) referral network.”

Based on this admission, the lawsuit states Jaffer believed SMG was attempting to pay him — through a disguised high salary — for the referrals to its network.

However, Mitty disagrees.

“Steward Medical Group denies any assertion that it paid, employed or terminated Dr. Jaffer based on the volume or value of his referrals, or that it otherwise acted improperly toward him in any way,” Mitty said last week. “Steward Medical Group takes its legal and clinical obligations very seriously and intends to vigorously defend itself against the specious allegations put forth in Dr. Jaffer’s complaint.”

The case has been assigned to Common Pleas Judge Andrew D. Logan and copies of the lawsuit were delivered to the defendant, according to a March 5 docket entry. According to the docket, Steward acknowledged receipt of the lawsuit on Tuesday.

No hearings in the case have been scheduled.

Steward, based in Boston, Mass., is part of Steward Health Care, which owns Trumbull Regional Medical Center as well as other medical practices in the Mahoning Valley.