Mealey's Health Care / ACA : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Health Care / ACA

January 19, 2023
Insurer Escapes Claims It Underpaid For Care In Network Savings Program

MIAMI — A medical provider’s contract is with a network savings program, not a participating insurer, and calls verifying insurance coverage do not evidence an agreement to make specific payments for five surgeries, a federal judge in Florida said.
January 19, 2023
Judge Slices Claims From Out-Of-Network Provider’s Compensation Case

NEW YORK — Claims against an insurer stemming from the alleged failure to pay an out-of-network provider’s contracted rates all fail, but breach of contract claims against a preferred provider organization for allegedly failing to enforce its agreement may proceed, a federal judge in New York said in ruling on motions to dismiss.
January 18, 2023
Hearing Scheduled For Remaining Defendants In Insolvent Health Plan Dispute

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal magistrate judge issued a minute docket entry scheduling an in-person status hearing for the remaining parties in a breach of duty of care suit filed by an independent fiduciary against insurance brokers in connection with the sale of an insolvent health plan.
January 17, 2023
Texas High Court: No Private Right Of Action In Emergency Care Statutes

AUSTIN, Texas — The high bar for implied rights of action and the regulatory power of the insurance department mean that Texas emergency care statutes lack a private right of action, dooming providers’ suits alleging that insurers undercompensated them, the Texas Supreme Court said Jan. 13.
January 17, 2023
Medical Provider Objects To Discovery In Insurance Pay Dispute

CLEVELAND — A special master ordered discovery production “wholly irrelevant” to the question of whether an insurer reasonably compensated a provider for emergency services, a plaintiff argues in a federal court in Ohio.
January 13, 2023
ERISA, ACA Discrimination Claims Fail In Clinical Coverage Case

MIAMI — An insurer’s belated decision to cover a clinical trial treatment moots Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims, and the insured has not shown discrimination based solely on disability as required for her Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557 claim, a federal judge in Florida said Jan. 12.
January 13, 2023
Some Of Surgery Provider’s Claims In Insurance Payment Dispute Dismissed

NEW YORK — Inclusion of a discount plan’s logo on insurance cards and other marketing material are not evidence of a promise to pay and do not form a contract, nor does evidence that insurers made payment at certain rates in other instances, a federal judge in New York said in dismissing some claims without leave to amend.
January 11, 2023
4th Circuit Dismisses Disability Claimant’s Appeal Based On Parties’ Agreement

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal dismissed a disability claimant’s appeal of a district court’s ruling in favor of a disability insurer after the claimant notified the appeals court that the parties reached an agreement over the termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits claim.
January 10, 2023
ACA Preventive Mandate Objectors Lay Out Remedy Options

DALLAS — Entities that are unable to purchase health insurance to their liking as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate are injured, and a universal remedy of vacatur of preventive care decisions is appropriate even if that relief was not specifically requested, plaintiffs tell a Texas federal judge in supplemental summary judgment briefing on remedies and standing.
January 10, 2023
Catholic-Operated Hospital, Parent Company Both Liable In ACA Case, Judge Says

BALTIMORE — A Catholic-operated hospital and its owner can both be liable in a transgender man’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) discrimination case regardless of which party received federal funding and, having successfully argued that they are state actors immune to suit, cannot now contend to be private businesses entitled to a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) defense, a federal judge in Maryland said in granting summary judgment to the patient on a discrimination claim.
January 05, 2023
Provider: Court Erred In Reinstating Out-Of-Network Arbitration Award

FORT WORTH, Texas — An appeals court ignored that the Legislature took pains to exclude Medicare rates from the out-of-network care arbitration rate in reinstating an award despite a lack of necessary evidence, a medical provider told the Texas Supreme Court in a petition for review.
January 05, 2023
Insurer: Individualized Issues Precluded Class In ACA Transgender Case

TACOMA, Wash. — Determining whether gender-affirming care was medically necessary under specific plans requires individualized inquiry, amounts to an attempt at individual monetary reward and would not provide complete relief to the class, precluding certification, an insurer argues in a reply in support of a petition for permission to appeal.
January 03, 2023
4th Circuit Finds Deliberate Indifference, Revives ACA, RA Claims

RICHMOND, Va. — A deaf man who repeatedly requested an in-person interpreter and was provided with only faulty remote interpreter equipment during a three-day hospital stay successfully demonstrated deliberate indifference, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in reviving Rehabilitation Act and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act discrimination claims.
January 03, 2023
Judge: ACA ‘Adult Child’ Coverage Doesn’t Impose Liability On Policyholder

FREEHOLD, N.J. — The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s extension of insurance policies to adult children did not create liability on the part of the policyholder for unreimbursed medical care, a New Jersey superior court judge said in denying summary judgment on what he said he believed were two issues of first impression.
December 22, 2022
No Evidence Provider, Insurer Agreed To Compensation, Judge Says

TRENTON, N.J. — A medical provider fails to introduce any evidence that insurance authorization calls included the types of specific payment terms required for contract and promissory estoppel claims, a federal judge in New Jersey said.
December 22, 2022
Summary Judgment Granted On Exaction Claim In ACA Transitional Reinsurance Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Federal Claims Court judge on Dec. 21 granted an opt-in class summary judgment on a claim that the government illegally exacted certain contributions from self-administered, self-insured employee health and welfare benefit plans under the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
December 22, 2022
Fee-Forgiveness Plan Warranted Insurer’s Denial Of Claims, Judge Says

SANTA ANA, Calif. — An insurer did not abuse its discretion when it stopped making payments to a substance abuse treatment center after an investigation produced evidence that it was engaged in fee forgiveness, a federal judge in California said in granting summary judgment after remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
December 22, 2022
Judge: ACA Section 1557 Covers Sex Discrimination, Third-Party Administrators

TACOMA, Wash. — Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Section 1557 precludes discrimination on the basis of sex and applies to third-party administrators, including those who receive federal funding in other areas of their business, a federal judge in Washington said in denying an insurer summary judgment and granting that relief to the class.
December 22, 2022
Beneficiary Can’t Bring Breach Of Contract Health Care Claim Against Trust

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A trust’s beneficiary may not sustain a breach of contract claim against it for an exclusion on health care coverage of the very type the trust was created and empowered to make, the Arkansas Supreme Court said.
December 16, 2022
Judge Largely Denies Summary Judgments In Asbestos Screening Fight

MISSOULA, Mont. — There is no evidence that an asbestos screening company falsely obtained a federal grant related to a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program intended for Libby, Mont., residents suffering from an asbestos-related disease, but questions remain about whether it falsely submitted information and the extent of the government’s knowledge, a federal judge held in granting summary judgment on the former issue and denying motions on all other issues.
December 16, 2022
New Case Law Doesn’t Revive Provider’s Waiver Argument, 9th Circuit Affirms

SAN FRANCISCO — Recent precedent interpreting when a health care plan waives anti-assignment provisions and equitable estoppel was not a fundamental change in law and did not warrant reopening a case closed since 2016, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said.
December 14, 2022
8th Circuit Affirms ACA Section 1557 Discrimination Rule Injunction

ST. LOUIS — Most of the religious objectors to a rule interpreting Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557 as including transgender care having standing and demonstrate the threat of harm, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in largely affirming a permanent injunction.
December 13, 2022
Judge: Order In Risk-Corridor Dispute With Insolvent Insurer ‘Speaks For Itself’

WASHINGTON, D.C — A federal judge denied in part and granted in part an insolvent insurer’s motion for clarification of a previous order and opinion in a suit seeking a declaratory judgment that the government owes insurers millions of dollars under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) risk-corridor program, finding that the government’s counterclaim for setoff failed to state a valid claim “to an offset against the amounts owed” by the insurer.
December 13, 2022
Appeals Court Hears Argument Over Counsel’s $184M ACA Risk-Corridor Award

WASHINGTON, D.C — A federal appeals court will decide the propriety of a $184 million award to class counsel that successfully challenged the government’s failure to make payments under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) risk-corridor program after hearing oral arguments.
December 12, 2022
Repricing Firm Isn’t Fiduciary, Agent In Out-Of-Network Care Reimbursement Case

LOS ANGELES — Repricing claims and submitting the suggested rates to an insurer constitutes ministerial tasks and does not confer fiduciary status under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or establish that the entity repricing claims is an insurer’s agent, a federal judge in California said in granting summary judgment to a repricing firm in an out-of-network substance abuse care reimbursement case.