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Biotech / Medical : HRC HEALTHSOUTH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tunica Albuginea who wrote (34)	10/29/1999 8:52:00 AM
From: Tunica Albuginea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 181

Aetna, U.S. Healthcare California Unit Are Sued by Plaintiffs' Lawyer Group October 29, 1999 Aetna, U.S. Healthcare California Unit Are Sued by Plaintiffs' Lawyer Group By MILO GEYELIN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL In the latest legal salvo against the managed-care industry, a national group of plaintiffs' lawyers sued Aetna Inc. and its Aetna-U.S. Healthcare unit in California, alleging unfair and misleading trade practices under that state's consumer-protection laws. The suit, seeking class-action status on behalf of 1.4 million Aetna-U.S. Healthcare plan members in California, is one of several planned against a slew of HMOs in that state, said Fred P. Furth, an antitrust lawyer in San Francisco who is part of a national network of plaintiffs' attorneys that has launched lawsuits against the managed-care industry. The suit seeks an injunction against allegedly deceptive practices and a court judgment forcing Aetna to disgorge any ill-gotten profits in the state. "We haven't narrowed it down to Aetna," said Mr. Furth, of the suit filed Thursday in California Superior Court in Martinez. "Aetna is just the first complaint we filed. We do expect to file more." He said his firm is preparing suits against two California HMOs, PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. and Foundation Health Systems Inc., among others. Mr. Furth is allied with Pascagoula, Miss., lawyer Richard Scruggs and a dozen powerful plaintiffs' firms in South Carolina, Texas and Mississippi. Several of them -- including Mr. Scruggs's firm, Scruggs, Millette, Bozeman & Dent; the Charleston, S.C., firm Ness, Motley, Loadhoalt, Richardson & Poole and the Provost Umphrey law firm in Houston -- raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in fees suing tobacco companies. Mr. Scruggs's group and several other firms working separately in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta are suing HMOs to force more generous treatment of patients and a more hands-off approach to decision making by plan doctors. The suit filed Thursday alleges that internal constraints limiting patient referrals and specialized treatment for Aetna's HMO plan members in California, as well as provisions prohibiting physicians from disclosing them, violate the state's unfair business and professions code. The law is in place to protect California consumers from DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES. Aetna declined comment on the specifics of the California suit. "We really believe the plaintiffs' attorneys are targeting the health-insurance industry at the expense of the average American," said Chief Financial Officer Alan Weber. A spokesman for Foundation Health, based in Woodland Hills, Calif., said, "The suits have nothing to do with the quality of health care or keeping it affordable." Earlier this week, Alan Hoops, chairman and chief executive officer of PacifiCare, Santa Ana, Calif., said the HMO is bracing for similar class-action suits to be brought against it. Mr. Scruggs's group filed a national class-action suit this month against Aetna in Hattiesburg, Miss., alleging mail fraud and extortion. A separate class-action suit against Aetna was filed in Philadelphia by another firm, Berger & Montague, which specializes in class-action litigation. In Florida, two well-known firms sued Humana Inc. to force public disclosure by that company of cost considerations allegedly used in making patient-care decisions. --Carol Gentry and Rhonda L. Rundle contributed to this article.