By Christie Smythe
Bloomberg News
Originally published March 11, 2013
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) was sued by the New York State Psychiatric Association and mental-health patients over claims the insurer violated laws barring unequal coverage for psychiatric conditions.
UnitedHealth, the second-largest U.S. health insurer, has maintained “unjustifiably stringent medical-necessity criteria and pre-authorization requirements for mental-health services,” the plaintiffs said in a complaint filed today in federal court in Manhattan.
The company denied or limited access to psychotherapy and other mental-health treatments for patients suffering from conditions including psychosis, chronic depression, and anxiety disorders, according to the 102-page complaint, which seeks to represent all customers of the company facing similar situations.
The entire article is here.
Showing posts with label Class-action Lawsuit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Class-action Lawsuit. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Pfizer disputes claim against antidepressant
By Linda Johnson
Associated Press
Originally published January 31, 2013
The maker of Zoloft is being sued in an unusual case alleging the popular antidepressant has no more benefit than a dummy pill and that patients who took it should be reimbursed for their costs.
Zoloft's maker, Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker by revenue, disputes the claim, telling the Associated Press Thursday that clinical studies and the experience of millions of patients and their doctors over two decades prove Zoloft is effective.
The lawsuit was described as frivolous by Pfizer and four psychiatry experts interviewed by the AP.
Not so, according to plaintiff Laura A. Plumlee, who says Zoloft didn't help her during three years of treatment. Her attorney, R. Brent Wisner of the Los Angeles firm Baum Hedlund Aristei Goldman, argues the Food and Drug Administration shouldn't have approved Zoloft because Pfizer didn't publish some clinical studies that found the drug about as effective as a placebo.
(cut)
Kirsch, associate director of Harvard Medical School's Program in Placebo Studies, has published a book and several medical journal articles on the effect. With colleagues, he reviewed numerous studies of popular antidepressants, including unpublished studies obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.
"The difference between drug and placebo is very small," below the level that benefits patients, Kirsch concluded.
He said Pfizer produced two studies showing Zoloft worked better than placebo — the FDA's requirement for approval — but most Zoloft studies showed its effect was the same as a placebo.
Dr. Michael Thase, who heads the mood and anxiety disorders program at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, said research by others using the same unpublished studies concluded antidepressants have "a modest effect over placebo," on average about 15 percentage points.
That's partly because the rate of study participants improving when they're taking a placebo has been rising, said New York University's Sussman.
The entire story is here.
Associated Press
Originally published January 31, 2013
The maker of Zoloft is being sued in an unusual case alleging the popular antidepressant has no more benefit than a dummy pill and that patients who took it should be reimbursed for their costs.
Zoloft's maker, Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker by revenue, disputes the claim, telling the Associated Press Thursday that clinical studies and the experience of millions of patients and their doctors over two decades prove Zoloft is effective.
The lawsuit was described as frivolous by Pfizer and four psychiatry experts interviewed by the AP.
Not so, according to plaintiff Laura A. Plumlee, who says Zoloft didn't help her during three years of treatment. Her attorney, R. Brent Wisner of the Los Angeles firm Baum Hedlund Aristei Goldman, argues the Food and Drug Administration shouldn't have approved Zoloft because Pfizer didn't publish some clinical studies that found the drug about as effective as a placebo.
(cut)
Kirsch, associate director of Harvard Medical School's Program in Placebo Studies, has published a book and several medical journal articles on the effect. With colleagues, he reviewed numerous studies of popular antidepressants, including unpublished studies obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.
"The difference between drug and placebo is very small," below the level that benefits patients, Kirsch concluded.
He said Pfizer produced two studies showing Zoloft worked better than placebo — the FDA's requirement for approval — but most Zoloft studies showed its effect was the same as a placebo.
Dr. Michael Thase, who heads the mood and anxiety disorders program at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, said research by others using the same unpublished studies concluded antidepressants have "a modest effect over placebo," on average about 15 percentage points.
That's partly because the rate of study participants improving when they're taking a placebo has been rising, said New York University's Sussman.
The entire story is here.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
L.A. Psych School Lied, Class Claims
By WILLIAM DOTINGA
Courthouse News Service
November 15, 2012
Students claim in a class action that the Los Angeles campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology recruited them by lying that it was accredited by the American Psychological Association.
Miranda Jo Truitt and three other named plaintiffs sued the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and its subsidiaries, including TCS Global, in Superior Court. They allege fraud, conspiracy, false advertising and consumer law violations.
Also named as defendants are the California Graduate Institute and the school's national president Michelle Nealon-Woods and "lead faculty" member of the Los Angeles campus, David Sitzer.
The students claim the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, or TCS, was "ostensibly formed, organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code for the 'advancement of education and science,' but in fact is being operated by its management team for the benefit of private interests for financial profit and personal gain through a network of interrelated companies and entities owned and controlled by TCS.
The entire story is here.
Thanks to Ken Pope for this story.
Courthouse News Service
November 15, 2012
Students claim in a class action that the Los Angeles campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology recruited them by lying that it was accredited by the American Psychological Association.
Miranda Jo Truitt and three other named plaintiffs sued the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and its subsidiaries, including TCS Global, in Superior Court. They allege fraud, conspiracy, false advertising and consumer law violations.
Also named as defendants are the California Graduate Institute and the school's national president Michelle Nealon-Woods and "lead faculty" member of the Los Angeles campus, David Sitzer.
The students claim the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, or TCS, was "ostensibly formed, organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code for the 'advancement of education and science,' but in fact is being operated by its management team for the benefit of private interests for financial profit and personal gain through a network of interrelated companies and entities owned and controlled by TCS.
The entire story is here.
Thanks to Ken Pope for this story.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
US Health Breach Tally Hits 19 Million
385 Major Incidents Reported Since 2009
Govinfosecurity.com
By Howard Anderson, January 23, 2012
With the tardy addition of the Sutter Health breach, the U.S. tally of major healthcare information breaches now includes 385 incidents affecting more than 19 million individuals since September 2009.The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights recently added the Sutter Health breach, which occurred in October, to its official tally of breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. It adds incidents once it confirms the details.
Healthcare information on 943,000 individuals was on an unencrypted desktop computer that was stolen in October from a Sutter facility in California; that total is reflected in the official federal healthcare breach tally. But in announcing the breach, Sutter Health noted that two databases with information on 4.2 million patients were on the device.
A database for Sutter Physician Services, which provides billing and other administrative services for 21 Sutter units, held only limited demographic information on about 3.3 million patients collected from 1995 through January 2011. The device also contained a database with more extensive information on 943,000 Sutter Medical Foundation patients, dating from January 2005 to January 2011. This smaller database included the same demographic information as the larger database, plus dates of service and a description of diagnoses and/or procedures.
Sutter Health faces two class action lawsuits in the wake of the breach.
Breach List Update
In addition to adding the Sutter Health incident, federal officials added five much smaller incidents to the official breach tally in the past month.
Of the 385 incidents affecting 500 or more individuals that are now included in the official tally after being reported to authorities as required under the HIPAA breach notification rule, roughly 55 percent have involved lost or stolen unencrypted electronic devices or media. About 22 percent have involved a business associate.
The entire story is here.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
$1B suit filed against Sutter Health over data breach
By Bernie Monegain, Editor
HealthcareITNews
The theft of a computer during a break-in in October has spurred a $1B class action lawsuit against Sutter Health, according to a report published today by the Sacramento Bee. The computer contained data on more than 4 million patients.
The suit was filed Nov. 21 in Sacramento Superior Court.
In a news release posted online by the Sacramento-based health system on Nov. 16, Sutter officials detailed the findings of its investigation into the theft and offered an apology.
“Sutter Health holds the confidentiality and trust of our patients in the highest regard, and we deeply regret that this incident has occurred,” said Sutter Health President and CEO Pat Fry. “The Sutter Health Data Security Office was in the process of encrypting computers throughout our system when the theft occurred, and we have accelerated these efforts.”
Sutter Physicians Services (SPS) and Sutter Medical Foundation (SMF) – two affiliates within the Sutter Health network of care – announced the theft of a company-issued password-protected unencrypted desktop computer from SMF’s administrative offices in Sacramento the weekend of Oct. 15, 2011.
The story is here.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Stanford Hospital & Clinics vows to fight $20M class action
By Jason GreenMercuryNews.com
Stanford Hospital & Clinics vowed Monday to "vigorously defend" itself against a $20-million class-action complaint filed in the wake of a data breach that saw the medical records of 20,000 patients posted on a commercial website for nearly a year.
Shana Springer filed the complaint on Sept. 28 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, on behalf of fellow patients treated in Stanford's emergency room between March 1, 2009, and Aug. 31, 2009. She is seeking $1,000 per patient, as well as other penalties, damages and attorneys fees.
The nine-page complaint alleges the hospital violated the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, a state law that requires medical providers to safeguard patient information and prohibits its disclosure without written consent.
"On its website, Stanford claims that its patients' 'health care experience is [its] highest priority.' Thus, it should be no surprise that when patients are treated at Stanford's facilities, they expect that their private medical information will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone without their authorization," the complaint states.
In a brief statement released Monday, Stanford placed the blame on complaint codefendant Multi-Specialty Collection Services LLC, saying it was the subcontractor that mishandled the data. The hospital has since cut ties with the Woodland Hills-based company, which provided collection and billing services.
The entire story can be read here.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Wellpoint Reaches Settlement on Data Loss
WellPoint has reached a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in California Superior Court for the potential exposure of data belonging to more than 600,000 health insurance applicants on a company-run website.Under the settlement, WellPoint agreed to offer credit monitoring services for two years to all affected individuals, according to a report by amednews.com.
The company agreed to reimburse affected individuals up to $50,000 for any identity theft losses; individuals have until May 31, 2016, to file an identity theft loss claim. The company also agreed to donate a total of $250,000 to two nonprofit organizations whose efforts are directed at protecting consumers' privacy on the Internet, according to the report.
The situation came to light when an applicant to WellPoint-owned Anthem Blue Cross of California sued the company in March 2010, according to a report by amednews.com. The applicant said he was able to manipulate the web address within the site and gain access to other applicants’ information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, and health and financial information.
When the class-action lawsuit was filed, the company said an upgrade to its system caused the information to be exposed. A third-party vendor had said that security measures were in place, when if fact they were not.
A hearing is scheduled for November at which time the court will decide whether to approve the settlement, the report noted.
Last month, WellPoint agreed to pay $100,000 in fines for delaying notification to 32,000 Indiana customers affected by a possible data breach in a settlement with the Indiana Attorney General.
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