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Hospital Group May Pay Up To $423 Million; Catholic Healthcare West Settles With Uninsured Patients
San Francisco Daily Journal
January 12, 2009
Catholic Healthcare West agreed Thursday to a $423 million class-action settlement over pricing and collection practices for 780,000 uninsured patients at the company's hospitals. Under the agreement, approved by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer, patients can receive refunds or bill reductions of 35 percent for hospital services provided from July 1, 2001, to September 25, 2006.
The hospital group also agreed to maintain pricing policies for uninsured patients comparable with those for patients with private insurance. The suit was filed by two uninsured patients on behalf of themselves and all uninsured patients at 35 Catholic Healthcare West-affiliated hospitals in California, Nevada and Arizona.
The original complaint, filed in October 2005, alleged that Catholic Healthcare West charged uninsured patients excessive and unfair prices for medical treatment and engaged in aggressive and unfair collections practices. "This settlement provides much-needed relief to hundreds of thousands of uninsured patients by substantially reducing their past medical bills and ensuring that, in the future, CHW maintains reasonable prices for all uninsured patients," said plaintiffs' attorney Kelly Dermody of San Francisco's Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein.
Learn more about the Catholic Healthcare West settlement and your legal rights.