Home Health-Care Provider Ordered to Defend Tobacco Penalty

LHC Group Inc. was ordered to defend a proposed class action claiming it wrongly charges tobacco-using employees extra fees for health-care coverage without providing a valid way to have the penalties waived.

Judge Robert R. Summerhays on Tuesday adopted a magistrate judge’s report recommending that the case move forward past the home health-care company’s motion to dismiss. In the November 2025 report, Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst said LHC’s tobacco penalty may violate legal requirements by giving workers only four months to enroll in and complete a quit-smoking program that could allow them to have the charges waived.

The judges, ...