Business
Collection class-action suit gets green light
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 18, 2006
A class-action suit against Scripps Health, a San Diego-based hospital group, will go forward after San Diego Superior Court Judge Steven Denton rejected an attempt to have the case dismissed.
Phillip Franklin, a patient who was uninsured at the time of his treatment at Scripps, filed a class-action cross complaint against Scripps in July after he was sued by the hospital group through a collection agency. Franklin claims he, like other uninsured patients, was charged unreasonable, unconscionable and excessive hospital bills
Scripps filed a motion to have the case dismissed, claiming existing law permitted the conduct Franklin alleges in his suit. The court last month found the law does not "provide Scripps with the express unfettered right to charge uninsured patients unconscionable rates that bear no relation to the actual services performed."
Franklin is seeking relief on behalf of tens of thousands of uninsured patients treated at Scripps since July 19, 2002, according to the law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, which is representing Franklin.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/12/18/bibf1218.htm.
