Are You a Victim of Medical Malpractice?
The State of Illinois’ Attorney General has threatened Aetna with a class action lawsuit over their refusal to offer affordable health insurance plans. According to the attorney general of Illinois, “Aetna intentionally and negligently under advertised its HMO/PO [point of service] rates and confined its consumers to inaccurate and inadequate information about how those rates would affect a person’s ability to get affordable health care coverage and how those rates would restrict a person’s doctor choices.” The Attorney General is seeking damages on behalf of the Illinois plaintiff who was forced to purchase Aetna’s health plan despite its inadequate benefits and expensive premiums.
In a class action lawsuit, members of a class are allowed to file a lawsuit together to recover damages. Class action lawsuits allow everyone in a certain category to bring a lawsuit against an entity or person that violates the law. Class actions also make it easier for people to seek damages as a group rather than individual cases. Personal lawsuits have to be filed by a plaintiff on his own behalf. Because of the complexity of personal lawsuits, insurance providers usually prefer to settle rather than go to court.
Insurance providers like Aetna recognize that sometimes it is only a matter of time before they are compelled to go to court. “When we receive a threat of a class action lawsuit, we evaluate the situation very carefully,” said John J. Seif, senior vice president of Aetna. “Aetna wants to work with our members to find affordable health care options that will help us serve our community and improve the quality of life for all of our patients.” Seif added that the company remains committed to providing affordable healthcare options to all its members. “Aetna has been a strong advocate for patient rights and is a signer on the Patient Bill of Rights, which caps the amount that insurance companies can charge for treatment in the emergency room.”
What should an individual do if he or she thinks that he or she may be a victim of medical negligence? The first thing to do is to file a complaint with the local state health department. There are several class action lawsuit resources available online. These include forms that a person can fill out online at no cost, which can help you determine if you are a victim of medical malpractice and how to file a lawsuit. If you are not a medical professional and do not know anything about health care, you should contact an experienced health attorney who is familiar with Aetna class action lawsuit cases.
Attorneys handling Aetna cases have a great deal of experience winning class action lawsuits, particularly in dui and health insurance fraud cases. Most of these attorneys offer a free initial consultation to determine whether your case is eligible for a lawsuit. This can be a valuable step in helping you decide to pursue a case against your medical provider.
The resources provided on this site are designed to be used for informational purposes only. It should not be used as legal advice or as a substitute for seeking the advice of a qualified attorney in determining whether a particular case qualifies for a class action lawsuit. When in doubt about a pending Aetna class action lawsuit, it is wise to speak to a qualified attorney in the field.
someone should file a class action lawsuit against eviCore and Aetna insurance. My health insurance (Aetna) requires us to go to in network providers. When my in-network Aetna Doctor recommended a treatment, Aetna requires it to get submitted it to eviCore for ‘clinician review’. Needless to say the eviCore clinician denied the Doctor’s prescribed treatment, in this case a pet scan. eviCore’s clinician has never examined the patient, never talked to the patient, never contacted the patient in any way and then decides that the treatment is not necessary!
First. Aetna requires people go to in network Doctors. They have already screened these Doctors, why do they need to hire a third party to do additional screening? Is it perhaps to frustrate patient services by making getting Aetna In Network Doctor prescriptions more difficult to attain?
Second. I would bet eviCore has never done a clinician review where they recommended treatments in addition to the Aetna In Network prescribed treatment. This shows that Aetna is colluding to deny treatments to patients by hiring a third party to act as an added layer of bureaucracy to frustrate patient treatment. God help the poor patient that is sick and trying to take on these bureaucratic behemoths.
Finally. when i called eviCore to try and sort out all these in’s and out’s(800-792-8744 x1), I had the misfortune to speak to eviCore’s representative Crystal. After several sentences, Crystal became angry and hung up the phone in my ear. At a minimum eviCore needs to hire competent people to interact with other people. At best, Aetna will eliminate these stone walling tactics and let the In Network Doctors make the decisions for a patient’s treatment. Then the person examining and diagnosing the patient can focus on the a patient’s healthcare and not feeding the bureaucratic health insurance beast.