New Front on Opioid Litigation: Suits Over Rising Premiums
2018年5月3日 - 2:13AM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Randazzo
The opioid epidemic has unfairly increased health insurance
costs across the board, not just for those suffering from
addiction, plaintiffs allege in five proposed class-action lawsuits
filed Wednesday.
The suits, brought on behalf of people and businesses who have
paid for health insurance in California, Illinois, Massachusetts,
New Jersey and New York since 1996, represent a new front in
litigation seeking to hold corporations accountable for the opioid
crisis.
Already, drug makers and distributors collectively face more
than 600 civil lawsuits brought by local and state municipalities
trying to recoup costs borne from opioid abuse.
The proposed class actions name as defendants Purdue Pharma
L.P., Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Endo
International, and other manufacturers, as well as drug
distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and
McKesson Corp.
Like litigation brought by states and counties, the lawsuits
allege manufacturers minimized the risk of opioids and overstated
their benefits to boost profits, and that distributors did nothing
to stop it.
They also claim that the defendants' conduct has hurt the
private health insurance market.
"Insurance companies factored in the unwarranted and exorbitant
healthcare costs of opioid-related coverage caused by defendants
and charged that back to insureds in the form of higher premiums,
deductibles, and co-payments," the complaints allege.
The total economic cost of the opioid epidemic reached an
estimated $504 billion in 2015, according to the White House
Council of Economic Advisers, representing roughly 2.8% of that
year's gross domestic product.
The defendants didn't immediately respond to requests for
comment Wednesday on the new round of lawsuits. The manufacturers
have denied the allegations in prior opioid-related suits and said
they are focused on being part of the solution to the opioid
crisis. The distributors have also denied the mounting claims and
said they are committed to maintaining strong programs designed to
detect and prevent opioid diversion.
The lawsuits, filed in federal court in five states, bring
claims including fraud, racketeering and public nuisance and seek
the disgorgement of what they call unjust profits made by the
defendants. Each potential class could number into the millions of
people.
"It is not enough that public entities collect damages for harms
suffered by taxpayers," said Travis Lenkner, a Chicago lawyer whose
firm, Keller Lenkner LLC, is one of several backing the proposed
class actions. "The manufacturers and distributors must also pay
for the devastating economic impact they've had on the private
sector and health insurance market."
Insurance-claim data show insurers' spending, and consumers'
out-of-pocket spending, on addiction treatment has soared in recent
years, as the opioid crisis has escalated. America's Health
Insurance Plans, an industry group, put out a report in February on
how health plans can prevent, intervene and treat opioid
addiction.
In a study released last year, the Blue Cross Blue Shield
Association found that the number of its members with an opioid use
disorder jumped 493% from 2010 to 2016. In that same period, it
found a 65% increase in the use of medication-assisted treatments
for those disorders.
As new lawsuits pile up, settlement talks continue between the
opioid makers and hundreds of municipalities. The majority of those
suits have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Dan Polster
in Cleveland, who is pushing for a swift resolution to the
litigation. The parties are due back in his court for a settlement
conference next week, and the Justice Department has told the court
it plans to participate in the talks.
Meanwhile, a handful of 2019 trial dates have been scheduled in
federal and state courts.
Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 02, 2018 12:58 ET (16:58 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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