Personal Injury Law

Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Medical Billing Practices

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

Malpractice is a potent problem because so many of the victims never become fully aware that they have been wronged. Patients so often depend completely on the decisions made and explained by their medical professionals. It is difficult to question things about complex medical care.

In the same way, it is difficult for victims to understand the billing details of that care. Illegal over-billing occurs with more frequency than many patients are aware. Unfortunately, they often never discover the problem. However, according to St. Louis Today, one victim is stepping up and filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of many victims of medical overbilling in his area.

The lawsuit claims that thousands of patients were overbilled for their care. The malpractice suit claims that the prices for ?out of network? care is exorbitant an unfair because drastically different amounts are charged to patients depending solely on who is paying for the service. The same care provided by the same doctors to virtually the same patients often cost staggeringly different amounts.

This problem is compounded when ?out of network? care decisions are not even made by the patient. For example anesthesiologists, certain types of equipment, and laboratory work are chosen by the care provider themselves. Those decisions (and cost) are often deemed outside of the ?network,? triggering the unfair billing of patients without the patient playing any role in deciding their use.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on January 24, 2011 (boomark / email).