Blue Cross Of California Settles Patient Accusations That It Systematically Canceled Policies

Blue Cross of California on Tuesday agreed to settle more than 70 lawsuits and claims filed by individual health plan members who alleged that Blue Cross illegally revoked their coverage, the Los Angeles Times reports. The suits accused Blue Cross of violating state laws that prohibit insurers from canceling coverage unless a policyholder intentionally lied on the medical history application. Blue Cross says it can cancel a policy regardless of whether omissions are intentional, but state regulators say a policy cannot be canceled for an unintended discrepancy between the policyholder's application and medical records. In exchange for money in the settlements, patients agreed to drop allegations that Blue Cross had cancelled their coverage to avoid paying for costly treatments. Terms of the settlement are confidential (Girion, Los Angeles Times, 10/18).

Broadcast Coverage
KPBS' "KPBS News" on Tuesday reported on lawsuits against Blue Cross. The segment includes comments from Daron Tooch, an attorney representing California hospitals in a lawsuit against Blue Cross (Goldberg, "KPBS News," KPBS, 10/17).

The complete transcript is available online.

The complete segment is available online in Quicktime media format.

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