UnitedHealth Prescription Drug Lawsuit Alleges CoPay Overcharges

Health insurance companies are allegedly overcharging customers for services or medications, by requiring pharmacies to charge co-payments that are ten times the amount the customers would pay if they had purchased the drug directly without using their insurance.

UnitedHealth is one of the companies allegedly participating in this practice, with one man filing legal action in response to his overtly expensive prescription.

Florida plaintiff Marvin Rabbiner has filed a UnitedHealth prescription drug lawsuit on behalf of himself and “others similarly situated”, against UnitedHealth Group Incorporated and its associates for allegedly overcharging prescriptions.

According to the UnitedHealth prescription drug lawsuit, Rabbiner had made a number of drug prescription purchases from 2014 to 2016 through his UnitedHealth administered insurance plan.

UnitedHealth Prescription Drug Lawsuit Allegations

The UnitedHealth prescription drug lawsuit alleges Rabbiner’s insurance plan included a “clawback fee”, which violates Rabbiner’s insurance plan terms and the company’s civil obligations.

Clawback fees are the co-payments health insurance companies require pharmacies to charge customers, for a drug that can typically be predeceased at a cheaper price without insurance.

Essentially, a clawback fee is the difference between the co-payment amount and the smaller price of the drug.

Clawback fees are considered illegal, as patients are overcharged for their prescription medications. They typically come in two forms: co-payments that far exceeds the cost of the drug and large price markups of the medications.

According to the UnitedHealth prescription drug lawsuit, each of Rabbiner’s prescription purchases from 2014 to 2016 had been subjected to clawback fees.

Upon discovering that the drugs could have been purchased much cheaper directly, Rabbiner had decided to file legal action on behalf of himself and other patients similarly situated.

It is currently estimated that approximately 80 million Americans are victims of prescription drug fraud, by insurance companies allegedly overcharging co-payments for drugs and collecting clawback fees.

Clawback fees are often determined by pharmacy benefit management (PBM) firms, which represent the heath insurance companies or sometimes are directly owned by the heath insurance companies. Some pharmacists complain that this problem occurs all over the United States, which greatly hurts millions of patients.

Americans who are prescribed prescription medications need to be able to afford them at a fair price, making clawback fees bad to both their health and finances.

Rabbiner and other potential class members are filing this UnitedHealth prescription drug lawsuit for allegedly illegally overcharges for medications.

The UnitedHealth Prescription Drug Lawsuit is Marvin Rabbiner, et al. v. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, Case No. 16-CV-3996, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.