Three New Jersey hospitals are suing Cigna for allegedly "drastically" underpaying them and refusing to pay them for services, Lawstreet Media reported Aug. 9.
The lawsuit was filed by three CarePoint Health hospitals: Christ Hospital in Jersey City; Hoboken University Medical Center and Bayonne Medical Center. The hospitals allege that they provided services to 10,650 patients between March 2016 and May 2021, but Cigna did not pay or underpaid for services for 8,083 of those visits, according to the report.
The hospitals said they billed $244,344,882 to these patients, and Cigna is responsible for $211,512,899 of that total, according to the report. To date, Cigna has paid $76,155,427, according to the report.
The patients were out of network, but the three hospitals are required by the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act to treat patients regardless of whether they can afford treatment, according to the report.
In the lawsuit, the hospitals stated they "depend on commercial insurance companies to meet their legal responsibility and timely and properly pay a reasonable rate to providers."