IHA has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Galvan v. Northwestern Memorial Hospital case, one of the many class action lawsuits filed on behalf of uninsured patients for alleged overpricing by hospitals. The lawsuit had been dismissed at the trial level for failing to state a proper cause of action and the plaintiff appealed the dismissal. The appellate court will now have to decide whether to uphold the dismissal, or permit the lawsuit to proceed under theories that allege violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and unjust enrichment.

 

IHA’s brief provided the Court with an overview of hospital economics: how hospitals raise the revenue needed to serve uninsured patients at a loss and the origin of the system of “charge master” list prices and discounts from those prices. The brief also argued that the problem of paying for health coverage for the uninsured requires legislation, not ad hoc judicial price control on the hospitals that happen to get sued. Click here to view brief.

 

Staff contact: Kathleen Pankau 630-276-5598 or kpankau@ihastaff.org