Pat Lundvall Presents Opening
Statement in Managed Care
Reimbursement Litigation
After five days of jury selection, Pat Lundvall presented opening statement before Eighth District Court Judge Nancy Allf in Las Vegas in the closely watched trial between UnitedHealthcare and three TeamHealth-affiliated groups of Nevada emergency room healthcare providers who are seeking over $10.5 million in compensatory damages related to approximately 11,500 claims that were approved but underpaid by UnitedHealthcare, as well as attorneys fees, costs, interest and punitive damages. The trial involves a highly anticipated view into UnitedHealthcare’s reimbursement rate system for out-of-network providers delivering healthcare services to insureds in need of emergency room treatment. The case is Fremont Emergency Services (Mandavia), et al. vs. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al., case number A-19-792978-B.
As reported in The Texas Lawbook on November 9, although Pat’s case is in Nevada, “eyeballs across the country are on the trial because there are nine other TeamHealth lawsuits pending against UnitedHealthcare across the country.” A November 2 press release from TeamHealth notes that “The Nevada trial should be the most significant view behind the managed care curtain in recent history.” The case attracted additional headlines when the second week of the expected month-long jury trial began on November 8 with one juror being excused due to illness and, after only one hour into the trial’s morning session, a two-hour delay caused by an evacuation of the Las Vegas courthouse due to a bomb threat.
The Texas Lawbook article titled “TeamHealth Trial: A Threat, A Delay, A Juror Down” covered part of Pat’s opening statement in the excerpt below.
Opening Statements
Although the lawsuit at its core is about money, lawyers for TeamHealth said during opening statements last Tuesday that the litigation could, on a broader level, impact the overall quality of emergency physician care … .
“In business cases, they’re about passing money from one corporate pocketbook to another, but this case is about a little bit more; it’s about the quality of healthcare in Nevada,” said TeamHealth attorney Pat Lundvall of Las Vegas firm McDonald Carano. “In general, you get what you pay for. If you want quality physicians, you have to pay them fairly.”
Lundvall showed jurors a slide which claimed that UnitedHealthcare engaged in “intentional discrimination” against TeamHealth ER doctors because the insurer paid other emergency room providers in Nevada $528 per visit on average while it paid TeamHealth doctors an average of $247 per visit.
Please click here to read the complete Texas Lawbook article.
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