Excessive Hospital Bills in California Could Be Result of Unfair Billing Practices

A class action investigation has been launched against healthcare companies for allegedly sending unreasonably expensive hospital bills in California. More specifically, this investigation is reviewing unfair medical billing practices for drugs and other healthcare services that cause expensive hospital bills in California.

According to consumer complaints, some of these hospital bills in California consist of unfair medical charges like expensive co-pays that were charged to patients insured with a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). A PPO is a type of healthcare plan that contracts medical care providers like hospitals and physicians to create an affordable insurance network for patients.

In reported cases of PPO patients, they were allegedly charged over ten times the amount they would have paid if they did not have insurance coverage.

Examples of this include:

• Co-payments that surpass the market value of the drug. For example, a patient is forced to pay $20 in a co-payment for a generic prescription drug that Rite Aid sells to uninsured patients for $1.75.
• Overcharging medical services, such as those noted in medical bills involving lab work. For example, a medical lab may charge an insured patient $800 for a biopsy that was ordered by a physician, when an uninsured patient is only charged $40. People with high deductibles in their insurance plans are especially vulnerable to this.
• Exorbitant price markups for drugs without a co-pay, which is described as a nationwide problem by pharmacists. One pharmacist reported that patients could be charged $270 for an antinausea medication, which was sold for $15 to patients without insurance.

Overview of Class Action Investigation

Essentially, healthcare companies in California may be participating in unethical billing practices that overcharge insured patients at an unreasonably expensive rate. This problem has been noted in patients with high deductibles, with unfair medical charges consisting of healthcare services including, but not limited to:

• Lab work
• Urinalysis
• Blood work
• MRIs
• CT Scans
• Genetic prenatal testing
• Infusions

Eligible participants in this investigation would have to be residents of California, have a PPO insurance plan, had an overcharge on a drug or medical service in the last three years or paid a higher amount than expected on a co-pay for generic prescription drugs or a procedure that was supposed to be covered.

Patients who received unusually expensive hospitals bills in California in the last three years and are a PPO participant may be eligible for compensation. Patients interested in participating in this lawsuit investigation should save any expensive hospitals bills in California along with any other potentially relevant unfair medical charges. They should also document any communications with their insurance company and healthcare company regarding their hospital bills in California, including date and time as well as the summary of the conversation.

Patients can also research the hospital bills in California they received by using websites which help estimate prices for a medical procedure in the area they live in. There may be other tools available from the patients’ insurance provider to use which can be used to help lessen the blow from their hospital bills in California.

It is important to note that some health insurance companies offer their own tools to price healthcare services, such as United Healthcare’s myHealthcare Cost Estimator, which compares the costs of the medical procedure between different patients.

Join a Free Unfair Medical Billing Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you have a PPO insurance plan in California and have (i) paid a co-pay for generic prescription drugs at Rite Aid, or another retail pharmacy; or (ii) paid a higher-than-expected deductible for a covered medical procedure, you may be qualified to participate in this class action investigation.

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