Court Declines to Give Final OK To Coventry Health Care Settlement

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri refused to give final approval Sept. 26 to a $1.4 million settlement that would have ended a class action alleging Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc. violated state law by charging copayments and coinsurance for the same health care services (Casey v. Coventry Healthcare of Kansas Inc., W.D. Mo., 08-00201-CV-W-DGK, 9/26/11).

The settlement, which had been preliminarily approved by the court in May (88 DER EE-9, 5/6/11), required Coventry to establish a $1.4 million common fund to reimburse eligible class members who paid both coinsurance and ...