PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

Federal judge lifts discovery stay in HMO lawsuits

Still to be decided is the scope of discovery and the suits' class action status.

By Bonnie Booth, AMNews staff. Aug. 19, 2002.

A U.S. Federal District Judge has lifted the stay of discovery in the lawsuits several medical associations and individual physicians have filed against the nation's largest health plans accusing them of violating federal racketeering laws.

The stay had been in place while some of those health plans' defendants sought to have the lawsuits dismissed -- a gambit denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The medical associations hailed Judge Federico A. Moreno's ruling, made July 29. It lifts the discovery stay on Sept. 30.

"We now look forward to the opportunity to document all the dirty little secrets that HMOs play every day on doctors and their patients," said Fred L. Merian, MD, president of the Texas Medical Assn.

But Stephanie Kanwit, counsel for the American Assn. of Health Plans, said Moreno's ruling is "not an 'open sesame' for people's files."

Kanwit said Moreno has yet to rule on the scope of discovery. Lawyers for the medical associations and physicians will be looking for the broadest scope, while lawyers for the health plans will be looking to narrow it.

Moreno has also yet to decide whether the lawsuits should be given class action status -- a ruling that would open them up to a much wider group of plaintiffs -- and likely affect the discovery process. [...]

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