Monday, July 24, 2006      
 

BREAKING NEWS:

JUDGE BLOCKS CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE WEST’S PROPOSED SETTLEMENT 
 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Not-for-profit hospital giant Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) suffered a huge setback today when a California court denied the preliminary approval of a class-action settlement of a lawsuit on hospital price gouging. The settlement was attacked as “grossly unfair and nothing more than a price gouging protection act” by advocates of the uninsured.

“This is a major victory for the uninsured and a stinging blow against price gouging tyrants who attempted to use the courts to codify their egregious and immoral behavior,” said K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a national advocacy group that educates and assists the uninsured. Last month, Forbes vowed to oppose the proposed settlement and work to insure that the brokered deal “utterly collapses” if changes were not made.

CHW’s proposed settlement designed a discount program for the uninsured that would exclude anyone who had had or could have qualified for health insurance 24 months prior to when emergency hospital services were rendered. CHW’s discount program originally excluded residents who did not live in 478 specific Zip Codes in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

The Zip Code provision was changed in an Amended Settlement Proposal after a blistering public attack by the Consejo.  

Last week, the Consejo organized a lunchtime protest in front of California Hospital Medical Center, CHW’s flagship hospital in Southern California, decrying the settlement. “In essence, 99 percent of the uninsured would have been excluded from their proposed discount plan,” said Forbes. “We are very pleased with today’s decision.” 

The Consejo believes CHW should charge all uninsured patients, regardless of race, ethnicity, or income, a fair and reasonable price, like an HMO. Currently, hospitals charge the uninsured four or five times more than what they would accept as payment in full from an insurance company.

Forbes added, “We would be willing to support a settlement if some of these ridiculous barriers were removed, a fair pricing structure was included, and third-party verification and enforcement of the pricing plan were included.”

In 2003, Consejo was credited by The Wall Street Journal with “a big win” after forcing the nation’s second largest for-profit hospital chain, Tenet Healthcare, to end price-gouging against uninsured patients. Tenet now offers the uninsured the same discounted prices as insured patients.