High Court Declines to Hear HMO Lawsuit

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court declined Monday to consider the proper standards for allowing individuals to file class-action lawsuits against corporations, in a case accusing six health maintenance organizations of fraud.

Without comment, justices let stand a 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that certified a nationwide class-action suit on behalf of more than 600,000 doctors against the HMOs under a federal conspiracy statute.

The high court's action Monday allows the lawsuit to proceed in federal court in Miami. The doctors allege that the HMOs conspired from 1990 to 2002 to program their computers to systematically underpay doctors for their services.

The HMOs argued the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit certified the nationwide class action without a "rigorous inquiry" into whether the individual lawsuits were similar enough to be grouped together.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-scotus-hmo-lawsuit,0,3479654.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Doctors with lawyers. Irony beats self in head with irony stick.

crying for the HMOs. They deserve every class-action coming their way.

all of these frivolous lawsuits filed by Doctors?

stealing from them too. I hope more of then wake up. Before HMOs overhead was 2percent and now it is 25 percent because of all those high executive salaries.

for protection!!! or they will be screwed over more... thats where the money is!!!