DaVita’s Dialysis Bias Victory Warrants Rehearing, Court Told

A recent appellate victory for dialysis provider DaVita Inc. in a lawsuit accusing a hospital health plan of discriminating against kidney disease patients represents a “massive expansion of judicial authority” and should be reheard before it influences other circuit courts, according to rehearing petitions filed in the Sixth Circuit.

Ohio’s Marietta Memorial Hospital and its health benefits administrator on Wednesday asked the appeals court to rehear an Oct. 14 decision partially reviving DaVita’s case. The lawsuit claims the hospital’s health plan unlawfully discriminated against participants with kidney disease in an effort to encourage them to drop out of the plan ...