A federal judge has denied The Leapfrog Group’s attempt to reverse a ruling that found its hospital safety grades violated Florida consumer protection law, and separately put a $10.5 million fee dispute on hold, pending appeal.
On June 17, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks rejected Leapfrog’s motion to reconsider his March 6 ruling, which found the organization violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by penalizing hospitals that declined to participate in its voluntary survey with artificially low safety grades.
Leapfrog had pressed three First Amendment arguments in its reconsideration bid: that its safety grades constitute protected opinion, that the injunction required a finding of actual malice, and that the court order amounts to an unconstitutional prior restraint. Mr. Middlebrooks rejected all three.
On the opinion argument, the judge said he found Leapfrog’s position contradicted its own trial strategy — the organization had characterized its methodology as sound and objective during the bench trial, not as subjective opinion. Mr. Middlebrooks wrote that Leapfrog had attempted to “relitigate factual and legal findings” by recasting its methodology as opinion.
Derek Shaffer, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Leapfrog’s lead attorney, told Becker’s the ruling infringed on “patients’ right to hear” Leapfrog’s views on hospital safety.
“Something’s gone awry when hospital corporations can persuade a court to silence a nonprofit watchdog that reports on hospital safety, as Tenet-owned hospitals have in this case,” Mr. Shaffer said. “The First Amendment gives Leapfrog the right to speak freely about hospitals — and, more importantly, patients the right to hear its views. We welcome the opportunity to appeal and hope those who support patients’ rights and free expression will join our fight.”
In a separate order issued the same day, he denied Palm Beach (Fla.) Health Network’s motion seeking nearly $10.5 million in attorneys’ fees, finding the dispute is best resolved after Leapfrog’s appeal concludes. Palm Beach may refile if the appeal goes against Leapfrog.
Maggie Gill, eastern group president of Palm Beach Health Network said her system plans to refile the fee claim after the appeal process.
“The court has now rejected Leapfrog’s attempts to escape accountability twice,” she said. “Today’s decisive ruling from Judge Middlebrooks finds that ‘none of [Leapfrog’s] arguments are convincing’ and is further vindication of what we have said from the start: Leapfrog’s Safety Grades are flawed, deceptive and ‘mislead consumers,’ resulting in harm to our hospitals and the patients we serve.”
The five hospitals — Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center in Boca Raton — are part of Palm Beach Health Network, a division of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. The system filed a lawsuit in April 2025 after receiving “D” and “F” safety grades following their decision to stop participating in Leapfrog’s voluntary survey.
Following the March ruling, Leapfrog withheld grades from approximately 450 nonparticipating hospitals in its spring 2026 cycle and has said it expects to resume full grading in fall 2026.
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