Hospital employees, who were charged higher fees by a group health plan it owned than it charged employees of other client companies, have settled a lawsuit alleging that the overcharges violated the employer's fiduciary duties under ERISA reports the Winston-Salem Journal, "Baptist Hospital Settles Suit On Health Plan."
The lawsuit claims that the hospital, North Carolina Baptist Hospital (NCBH) charged its employees higher fees for services rendered at the hospital through a group health plan, MedCost, which was owned by the hospital, than those charged to employees of other corporate clients. The hospital employees also had higher co-pays and lower discounts. The report is:
"NCBH selected its subsidiary, MedCost, as the network provider for the plan knowing that MedCost would include NCBH in its provider network at substantially inflated reimbursement rates," according to the lawsuit. "The selection was made not on the basis of quality or cost from a fiduciary standpoint, but rather was based on NCBH's own economic interests."
The settlement will allow employees to recover damages for their overpayments going back to 2002 and will limit their charges in the future.
