A California federal judge ruled Cigna Health & Life Insurance Co. and MultiPlan Inc. must face claims from a proposed class of patients who allege the companies colluded to underpay for certain types of mental health and substance use disorder treatments in violation of federal benefits and anti-corruption laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. District Judge Davila held that the proposed class of proposed class of employee health plan beneficiaries had plausibly alleged the companies engaged in a scheme to defraud patients and providers in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, to the extent they were based on predicate acts of mail and wire fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to upholding RICO claims, Judge Davila’s order also upheld claims alleging Multiplan had breached its fiduciary duty to plan participants in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, holding that allegations supporting the patients’ RICO claims also supported the ERISA claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n