alleging

It's never good for business when you've angered 900,000 doctors. But with any luck, that chapter is over for 23 Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, which were targeted by a class-action lawsuit alleging unfair payment practices. The suit, which was filed in 2003, asserted that 23 BCBS plans were habitually cheating doctors by deliberately paying for less-intensive services than they had in fact provided. The BCBS plans have agreed to pay $128 million to settle the suit, and pay as much as …

Tenet Healthcare has agreed to pay $10 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle a suit alleging Medicare fraud. The SEC filed suit in 2002 against Tenet and four of its former officers, contending that the hospital operator had deliberately miscoded Medicare inpatient and outpatient charges as outliers. Coming up with the $10 million should be no problem for Tenet, which says that it has already set aside enough money to cover the settlement.The SEC agreement is …

Minneapolis, MN-based Allina Hospitals & Clinics and Fairview Health Services have settled a 2004 class action suit alleging that the two systems overcharged uninsured patients. Under the terms of the settlement, Allina and Fairview have agreed to discount the outstanding balances of uninsured patients who were seen between early February 1999 and August 2005 by 25 percent. If the patient has paid in more than 75 percent, the systems will give the patient a voucher for credit against …

> A group of former and current employees of public hospital system Denver health have sued, alleging that the system is biased against minorities. Article

> A Massachusetts doctor has come under fire after a 4 year old girl died while taking psychiatric drugs she had prescribed. …

A popular nerve-testing device is raising concerns among some critics, who say that the potential for profiting from its use may be putting patients at risk. NC-stat, made by small medical device firm Neurometrix, is designed to test patients for nerve disease. Medicare will pay for tests done with the NC-stat, which costs about $5,000. NC-stat is used largely by general practitioners, who say that they want to help patients get to the root of their problems quickly. But neurologists …

In its ongoing battle with hospital chain HCA, UnitedHealthcare filed a federal lawsuit against HCA subsidiary HealthOne, alleging antitrust violations, attempted monopolization and interference with contracts. But HealthOne is standing up to UnitedHealthcare, claiming that it has done nothing wrong and that the the insurer is simply using the lawsuit as a tactic in the ongoing …

After warring over contract terms for months, the battle between UnitedHealthcare of Colorado and Denver hospital system HealthOne has reached a new level of acrimony. UnitedHealthcare has filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital system, alleging antitrust violations, attempted monopolization and interference with contracts, according to The Denver Business Journal. United's complaint is that HealthOne, a joint venture between non-profit HealthOne Alliance and HCA Inc., has …

> At Health Care Renewal, Maggie Mahar criticizes the theory that bringing market influences to bear on medical costs will solve this nation's healthcare problems. Blog

> Several individual policy holders have filed suit against some of California's health insurers, alleging that their policies were retroactively and improperly canceled. …

> Health Management Associates warned that its quarterly and annual results will probably not match analyst expectations. Article

> Los Angeles County fires the head of a clinic run by King/Drew Medical Center, despite the recommendation of the consultant brought in to run the hospital. …

"My biggest fear is when a kidney comes up, they're going to say, 'Your condition is so deteriorated, we're not going to give you one,'" says a patient at Kaiser's transplant program. Three patients and their families filed lawsuits against the HMO Thursday alleging that problems at its San Francisco transplant center caused them serious harm. One of the patients, Ronald Hayes, died while awaiting a transplant. On Wednesday the health plan said it would pay for patients to have operations …