The case involves Arkansas resident and plaintiff Sue Garrison, who had tried to make the case class action, as well as defendants Jackson, Miss.-based collection company RevClaims and St. Bernard’s Hospital of Jonesboro (Ark.). Other Arkansas hospitals named as defendants were Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Walnut Ridge, Baptist Health of Little Rock, and White River Health System of Batesville.
The focus of the case was hospitals that don’t accept the health insurance of patients who have been injured due to the fault of others, according to the report. After Ms. Garrison was injured in a 2013 car accident that was caused by another driver, plaintiffs’ attorneys alleged “that the hospitals created financial and legal headaches, including filing liens against the injured patients, in hopes of being paid higher list prices from the patients’ settlements with the at-fault party rather than the discounted prices that their health insurance companies have negotiated for policyholders,” the report states.
U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes of Little Rock dismissed the case due to lack of sufficient evidence.
“[Ms.] Garrison agrees that these defendants have not directly caused her injury,” the judge wrote in his order, according to the report. “She contends, nevertheless, that she has been harmed by all of the defendants through a conspiracy to bill patients like her illegally.”
Ultimately, the judge determined Ms. Garrison’s complaint “didn’t allege sufficient facts to support her claim,” Arkansas Business reports. Baptist, Lawrence Memorial and White River were dismissed from the case.
As for St. Bernard’s and RevClaims, the judge found the organizations failed to recover money from a lien filed against Ms. Garrison and therefore did not injure her, according to the report. The case was dismissed in March.
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