From the LVRJ: Health Plan of Nevada must pay $500 million in punitive damages for its role in the 2008 hepatitis C outbreak, a jury decided Tuesday.
The same eight-member jury last week awarded $24 million in compensatory damages to three people, two of whom contracted hepatitis C at a facility operated by Dr. Dipak Desai, the central figure in the outbreak.
The $524 million total award is believed to be the largest in Nevada’s history for a single case.
Plaintiff lawyer Robert Eglet said the jury’s verdict sent a strong message to HPN, its former parent company Sierra Health Services and every health insurance company in the U.S.
“You cannot go around grinding the doctors’ reimbursement rates down and expect to be able to provide quality health care to your insured members. The health care industry needs to wake up,” the lawyer said.
Eglet on Monday asked for $2.49 billion in punitive damages, or about 15 percent of HPN’s and Sierra Health’s profits over a 10-year period.
HPN said in a statement that it had a compelling case for appeal and that the $500 million award “has no grounding whatsoever in reality — it represents fantasy damages, not punitive damages.”
During the two-month civil trial before District Judge Timothy C. Williams, Eglet — who represents Bonnie Brunson, 70, and her husband, Carl, 71 — said that in 1992, HPN dropped Desai from its network of doctors because of quality concerns, only to reinstate him five years later because of his high-patient-volume, low-price bid.....
“I pray this will be a big giant step in the direction that the big HMOs will do the right thing now,” said Brunson, who wants to help educate others about the outbreak and the disease.
Brunson is considered to be cured of the disease after undergoing a rigorous treatment program that is akin to the worst kind of chemotherapy for cancer.
The treatment failed for Meyer, who said the case wasn’t about the money. “It’s about being able to hire decent doctors and pay them a good rate,” she said.
When asked what is next for her, Meyer quipped, “Go home and relax.”
HPN probably will not fork over the money easily.
The company said in a statement that if the award is allowed to stand, it will affect the affordability of health insurance in Nevada.
“The only numbers that matter here are the higher insurance premiums that Nevadans may pay if health plans are held liable for the criminal conduct of independent doctors,” the statement said. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/health-plan-nevada-must-pay-500-million-hepatitis-c-case
The attorney for the plaintiffs, Robert Eglet is just a POS lawyer and portrays the typical ambulance greedy, unethical lawyer who doesn't care about anything but trying to win big pay days for his clients.
This thief of a lawyer wanted to steal the premiums of people who have paid in to HPN. The unethical lawyer Eglet wanted to get money from the HMO but will not go after the doctor who caused this mess int he first place.
This moron Eglet has decided to destroy the healthcare system in Las Vegas by going after companies who had nothing to do with Desai's unethical behavior, therefor, making malpractice insurance higher for doctors and other health care providers, having medical products withdrawn from the marketplace.
Eglet should be disbarred and probably charged criminally for extortion.
Eglet is a disgrace not only to lawyer field but a disgrace to the human race as he portrays himself as a human being when in reality, he is really nothing more than the crap that comes out dogs who ate a box of chocolate.
And sadly, we 12 stupid jurors actually listened to this clown and decided they wanted to get their 15 minutes of fame. They decided to award the money and let other courts to reduce or eliminate the awards.
So, once again, the Las Vegas courts are the laughing stock of the country, all thanks to jurors who 4 brain cells divided amongst themselves, a judge who is clearly incompetent and a lawyer who has the ethics of a polar bear around baby seals. Yeah, he killed all but one but he always points to the one he missed and saying he was being kind all of the seals.
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