From the Colorado Supreme Court reviewing a medical billing case to a health insurance company suing a former executive, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits and settlements making headlines.
1. The Colorado Supreme Court took up a lawsuit centering on whether a patient who expected to pay $1,337 for a surgery will be on the hook for the bill that reached $303,709. The patient, Lisa French, had a pair of back surgeries in 2014 at St. Anthony North Health Campus in Westminster, Colo. The dispute centers on a contract Ms. French signed in which she agreed to pay "all charges of the hospital" for her care.
2. St. Joseph's/Candler Health System in Savannah, Ga., may have violated federal disability law by rescinding a job offer from a man with HIV, a federal judge ruled March 3.
3. Anthem filed a lawsuit against a former president, alleging he stole trade secrets and breached agreements related to his restricted stock.
4. Mallinckrodt agreed to pay $260 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act. The settlement resolves allegations that the drugmaker knowingly underpaid Medicaid rebates for Acthar Gel medication between 2013 and 2020 and used a foundation as a conduit to pay illegal kickbacks to patients in the form of co-pay subsidies for the drug.
5. The Supreme Court denied Optum's bid to drop a class-action lawsuit that alleges the company worked with Aetna and used "dummy code" to make administrative fees appear to be billable medical charges.
6. Dallas-based Steward Health Care will face a class-action lawsuit alleging that the system overbilled patients or demanded payments from third parties not responsible for the bills, a federal court ruled Feb. 25.
7. The Sackler family, owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, agreed to pay $6 billion to settle long-running litigation alleging they fueled the nation's opioid epidemic.
8. Viatris, a drugmaker formerly known as Mylan Pharmaceuticals, on Feb. 28 agreed to pay $264 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over EpiPen pricing.