Class Action Lawsuit Filed over Nev. Healthcare Exchange Rollout Snag

When key elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, were supposed to be implemented, states had the options of setting up places to buy insurance or leave it to the federal government. According to several plaintiffs, one state failed to do so properly and the result is a new Nevada healthcare exchange class action lawsuit.

According to the class action lawsuit, Nevada expected the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange to be able to allow residents to shop for health insurance coverage and educate them on what types of benefits would be offered. Instead, the state and its contractor Xerox State Healthcare failed to adequately design and test the program, according to the class action lawsuit lawyers who filed the complaint.

As a result of the Exchange and Xerox having “utterly failed to create a system that works as advertised … thousands of Nevadans remain uninsured despite payment of insurance premiums,” the class action lawsuit says. One example is lead plaintiff Lawrence Basich.

According to the allegations in the class action lawsuit, Basich attempted to sign up for health insurance coverage beginning in October 2013. He chose a plan on Nov. 18, 2013 that would be effective beginning Jan. 1, 2014 and made the payment several days later. If it had been effective, some $400,000 medical bills would have been paid in part or in full by his carrier, Health Plan of Nevada.

Instead, the software and employees who monitored it allegedly did not submit Basich’s premium and application to the provider, even though, as a result of alleged negligent misrepresentation, Xerox and the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange provided “statements and other material showing specific effective dates of health insurance coverage,” according to the class action lawsuit.

Those actions allegedly affected some 10,000 other residents. The class action lawsuit seeks damages on their behalf based on the gap in coverage between when they were informed they would receive coverage, in most cases beginning Jan. 1, 2014, and when they actually began receiving coverage. Along with negligent misrepresentation, counts against the state and the contractor include gross negligence, conversion because the organizations held on to the money without putting it to its proper purpose, and violations of Nevada state law.

The plaintiffs are represented by class action lawsuit lawyers Matthew Q. Callister and Mitchell S. Bisson of Callister Immerman & Associates.

The Nevada Healthcare Exchange Class Action Lawsuit is Lawrence Basich v. Nevada ex rel. Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, et al., Case No. A-14-698567-C, in the Nevada State Court, Eighth Judicial District.