Cigna Substance Abuse Center Billing Dispute Tossed on Appeal

Cigna Health & Life Insurance Co. on Friday defeated a Ninth Circuit appeal claiming it wrongly failed to pay more than $8.6 million in medical bills from a now-bankrupt substance abuse treatment center.

The treatment center said Cigna breached contracts that were created during phone calls in which the center attempted to verify out-of-network coverage and sought authorization to care for specific patients. These claims were properly rejected are preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, because they related to ERISA-governed health plans, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said.

By attempting to secure ...