A $13 million lawsuit has the ownership of a prominent West Des Moines medical practice hanging in the balance.
Lakeview Surgery Center, which opened in 2002, provides a wide range of outpatient surgical procedures, serving more than 600 patients per month, according to its website. The practice is jointly owned and operated by two major central Iowa medical systems, UnityPoint Health and the Iowa Clinic.
That is likely to soon change, though, as the Iowa Clinic has exercised its right under contract to sell its stake in the practice to UnityPoint. The question now before a court is, how much is that stake worth?
The Iowa Clinic, citing several independent valuations, is demanding $37.8 million for its 50% share of the practice, while UnityPoint has argued it owes only $25.5 million, according to court filings.
The two sides have now filed civil claims against each other, each arguing the other is breaching their 2000 operating agreement. The case has been assigned to the Iowa Business Specialty Court and no trial date has yet been set.
What was the deal between UnityPoint and Iowa Clinic?
According to filings, the two systems included in their contract a right for either party to sell its stake in Lakeview to the other on request. The contract further provides that upon notice to sell, each party will hire an independent appraiser, with the final price being the average of their estimates.
If the valuations diverge by 10% or more, a third appraiser is sought, with the final price then being the average of the two closest valuations.
That’s what happened last year, according to court filings. In May 2025, the Iowa Clinic informed UnityPoint it wished to sell its share of Lakeview. In its counterclaim, the clinic accuses UnityPoint of “free riding” over the course of their partnership and directing its physicians to work out of its own facilities rather than Lakeview, “a UnityPoint strategy to make money from (Lakeview) at the expense of” the Iowa Clinic.
“These practices are detrimental not only to (Lakeview), but to UnityPoint patients and payors, as routine outpatient surgeries are much more expensive when performed at hospitals than when performed at” ambulatory surgery centers, the clinic claims.
UnityPoint, in its complaint, notes that the Iowa Clinic’s decision to sell comes one year after it opened a competing surgery center in Waukee.
Drawn-out appraisal leaves surgery center value in doubt
As recounted in court filings, the first two appraisers filed widely divergent reports by September 2025. UnityPoint’s evaluator priced the Iowa Clinic’s stake at $10.7 million, while the Iowa Clinic’s chosen appraiser put the value at $38.3 million.
To bridge that gap, a third appraiser was chosen, Georgia-based Coker Group. In April, Coker Group filed its report valuing the Iowa Clinic’s stake at a midpoint of $37.3 million, leading to the $37.8 million the clinic believes it is owed.
UnityPoint, though, argued after Coker finished its report that it should be disregarded. That’s because the original contract set a deadline to complete the third evaluation — a deadline that had run out, UnityPoint said, in February.
Who’s violating the original contract?
UnityPoint claims in its filings that it never agreed to waive the deadline, and that under the plain language of the contract, only the two original valuations can be considered.
The Iowa Clinic’s “refusal to honor the terms of the (operating agreement) appears to be motivated by its desire to extract millions of dollars more than it is entitled to under the OA. … The plain language of the contract is clear and unambiguous, and (the Iowa Clinic) cannot simply ignore its terms,” UnityPoint claims.
In its counterclaim, the Iowa Clinic argues that UnityPoint executives were well aware of the appraisal delay and repeatedly agreed, verbally and in writing, to let Coker Group finish its work.
“UnityPoint, explicitly and in writing, acknowledged that applicable deadlines had passed and worked to establish a new timeline to encourage the prompt completion of the third valuation,” the clinic claims. “(The Iowa Clinic) detrimentally relied on UnityPoint’s previous agreements. If UnityPoint had indicated that it would not agree to change the report deadline, and would enforce the previous date, both Coker and (the Iowa Clinic) would have met the putative deadline.”
In statements to the Des Moines Register, both sides described the dispute as strictly financial and said it will not affect Lakeview patients.
“It will not impact our commitment to exceptional patient care at Lakeview Surgery Center, which will continue to operate as usual,” the clinic said in a statement through its attorneys. “The Iowa Clinic looks forward to enforcing our rights in court.”
UnityPoint spokesperson Mark Tauscheck said in a statement the two health care providers have a “long-standing, collaborative relationship” despite the current litigation.
“This disagreement does not impact operations or patients at the Lakeview Surgery Center, and it does not impact our mutual commitment to ensuring that Lakeview Surgery Center continues to provide the best possible care to our collective patients throughout central Iowa,” he said.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Health care systems sue over Lakeview Surgery Center sale
Reporting by William Morris, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By William Morris, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
