State Supreme Court Dismisses Suit
The Supreme Court of South Dakota recently dismissed (pdf) two class action lawsuits based on the claim that hospitals charged uninsured patients inflated rates.
The two cases were already dismissed in circuit court. Two different patients, both uninsured, leveraged the same charges against two different hospitals in the state after each was treated for separate health conditions; intestinal surgery and a broken hip.
The legal basis for the case, according to the patients’ attorney was that a state law on deceptive trade practices was violated and that the hospitals breached implied contracts with the patients. The lawyer further argued that uninsured patients are charged more than insured patients, almost three times higher. Attorneys for the hospitals argued that there is no legal basis to support different charging practices for the uninsured.
Related stories:
- Universal Coverage Hits House
- Partnership Identifies Uninsured
- Identifying Medicaid-Eligible Patients
April 9, 2007 Related topics: Legal & legislative, Finance, Pricing