Sunrise, Humana reach settlement

Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 12:15 p.m.

The settlement will award $11.9 million to about 13,000 patients who made co-payments when they were hospitalized at Sunrise from 1984 to 1988.

Also, employers who offered Humana insurance to employees were awarded $4.1 million. Humana also must pay an additional $900,000 in court costs and $11.8 million in attorneys' fees.

The lawsuit was filed in 1989 and involved about 84,000 Nevada patients. It stemmed from an agreement Humana had with patients entering Sunrise to pay 80 percent of the bills.

Humana and Sunrise, however, had a discount agreement giving the insurance company lower rates. The savings weren't passed on to the patients.

The class-action lawsuit had been appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that federal racketeering laws could be used against the insurer and the hospital.

It was never applied in this case, Will Kemp, one of the attorneys representing the patients, said. But if it had, Humana and Sunrise could have been ordered to pay triple damages.

The settlement is expected to be approved by U.S. District Judge David Hagen in November, and payments should be mailed out to former patients by January.

Kemp said there are about 64,000 former patients still living and about 930 employers who will receive money.