The medical claims were allegedly underpaid and submitted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. In a motion filed Sept. 11, the medical center argued two favorable court rulings could allow for dismissal of Aetna’s claims. In July 2015, a Southern District of Texas court said the case overlapped another case involving the parties.
In February 2015, Aetna brought a lawsuit against North Cypress alleging the physician-owned community hospital engaged in an illegal kickback scheme and used deceptive billing practices that led Aetna to overpay the hospital by as much as $120 million. In August of the same year, North Cypress denied the allegations brought against it.
Karen Hinton, a spokesperson for North Cypress, told Becker’s Hospital Review at the time that the hospital believed Aetna’s lawsuit was part of a “scheme to sue out-of-network providers throughout the nation to coerce them into financially burdensome in-network contracts with Aetna.”
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