A surgeon is suing an eastern Iowa county hospital, alleging officials there discriminated against her on the basis of gender, fired her and then falsely reported she had resigned.
Dr. Beth Hothan-Zielinski of Henry County is suing Jefferson County Health Center of Fairfield in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa based on a civil rights complaint she filed against the hospital in November 2024.
According to the lawsuit, the hospital hired Hothan-Zielinski as a general surgeon in April 2013. For the next 11 years, the lawsuit claims, Hothan-Zielinski performed her job and, for most of that time, was the only general surgeon at the hospital.
In November 2021, the lawsuit alleges, the hospital hired Dr. Scott Stoeger as a second general surgeon. Stoeger left Jefferson County in November 2023, and in September 2024, Hothan-Zielinski allegedly learned that the hospital had paid him far more than her to do the same job.
The lawsuit claims that while Stoeger graduated medical school in 2013, Hothan-Zielinski had been a practicing general surgeon for 38 years, and yet Stoeger had a base pay of $480,000 per year, which was $105,000 more Hothan-Zielinski was paid.
Stoeger had no experience, education, skill or additional board certification that would have justified the pay difference, the lawsuit claims. It goes on to allege that the hospital “did not negotiate at all” the terms for Stoeger’s pay, offering him $480,000 and a $20,000 signing bonus, as well as an annual payment toward student loans, plus a $6,000 annual retention bonus for five years.
Hothan-Zielinski alleges she was never offered a signing bonus or a retention bonus.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Jefferson County Health Center gives surgeons bonuses based on a formula using Relative Value Units, or RVUs, which are intended to reflect a physician’s volume of work and level of effort in treating patients. Typically, the more RVUs a physician generates, the greater the revenue for the hospital and the physician.
On Sept. 11, 2024, the lawsuit claims, hospital CEO Bryan Hunger told Hothan-Zielinski her contract was not being renewed for 2025. “Dr. Hothan-Zielinski was shocked,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that Hunger later attributed the decision to her “productivity.”
The lawsuit states that Hothan-Zielinski then “gave a large file with her surgery figures” to the hospital’s governing board and “fought for her job” during a public meeting, arguing that the hospital was incorrect in its calculation of her RVUs.
“The board fired her anyway,” the lawsuit alleges. “The meeting minutes claimed Dr. Hothan-Zielinski resigned. That was false; Dr. Hothan-Zielinski never resigned.”
The lawsuit alleges violations of the Iowa Civil Rights Act’s provisions on gender, sex discrimination and pay discrimination, as well as violations of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. It is seeking compensatory damages for lost wages, as well as tripled damages due to the discrimination involved.
The hospital has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, which was filed in state court last month before being transferred to federal court this week. The hospital’s spokesperson and its attorneys in the case could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
