Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Trial Court's Approval of Landmark Aetna Lawsuit Filed by the Nation's Doctors against Leading HMOs.ATLANTA Atlanta (ətlăn`tə, ăt–), city (1990 pop. 394,017), state capital and seat of Fulton co., NW Ga., on the Chattahoochee R. and Peachtree Creek, near the Appalachian foothills; inc. 1847. -- Plaintiff's Lead Counsel Archie (ARCHIvE) An earlier Unix utility used to search for file names on Internet FTP sites. Considered by some as the first search engine, in its heyday before the Web, there were approximately 30 Archie servers throughout the Internet that maintained catalogs of files available Lamb: This Order Clears the Way for Implementation of the Many Benefits to Physicians and the Healthcare System Contained in the Landmark Settlement Agreement The Eleventh In music or music theory an eleventh is the note eleven scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the eleventh. Since there are only seven degrees in a diatonic scale the eleventh degree is the same as the subdominant and the interval Circuit Court of Appeals issued an Order on Monday, September 27, 2004 affirming Judge Federico Moreno's earlier approval of the landmark settlement agreement between the nation's physicians and Aetna. Monday's Order, issued without opinion, also overruled all remaining objections to the settlement. The settlement agreement, signed in May of 2003, concluded the lawsuit lawsuit: see procedure; tort. against Aetna involving issues dating back to 1990 and was part of on-going multi-district litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. currently pending against many of the nation's largest for-profit health insurers. The landmark settlement agreement includes industry-leading improvements to physician-related business practices that set new levels of transparency (1) The quality of being able to see through a material. The terms transparency and translucency are often used synonymously; however, transparent would technically mean "seeing through clear glass," while translucent would mean "seeing through frosted glass." See alpha blending. in paying claims, including a National Advisory Committee of Practicing Physicians to provide advice to Aetna on issues of importance to physicians. It also establishes an independent foundation dedicated to improving the quality of health care in America. The value to physicians of the business practice improvements over the course of the agreement is estimated at approximately $300 million. In addition to the significant business practice commitments that create a new a standard for the industry, Aetna has agreed to pay $100 million to physicians and $20 million to a foundation established by the agreement. "The primary achievement of this agreement for physicians is found in the fundamental recognition by Aetna of the importance of America's physicians in the healthcare equation," said Archie Lamb, co-lead counsel of the national class action. "Aetna's promises memorialized in the agreement to commit to external review, transparency, clearly defined coding guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. and a meaningful enforcement mechanism are truly landmark commitments. This Order clears the way for implementation of the many benefits to physicians and the healthcare system contained in the agreement," Lamb concluded. Additional background information on the case can be found at: www.hmocrisis.com |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion