Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication, however, that caused her liver to fail. Supreme Court ruling that shields employer-paid healthcare plans from damages over their coverage decisions. But U. District Judge Gary Allen Feess said the Sarkisyans could pursue damages for any emotional distress caused by the Philadelphia incident. The ruling was bittersweet for the Sarkisyans and patient advocates, who say it points to the need for federal legislation to allow people to sue health insurers for the life-or-death decisions they make.
The company said at the time that, for Nataline, the operation would have been experimental and was not covered. Nine days later, amid a storm of publicity, Cigna agreed to cover the transplant. Instead, it decided those claims could not be heard. Under ERISA, the courts have said, the only monetary damages that beneficiaries of workplace health plans can sue for is the cost of the treatment of service in dispute. News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism.
Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. The insurance company denied payment for the transplant, saying the procedure was experimental and outside the scope of coverage. The insurer reversed the decision Thursday as about teenagers and nurses rallied outside of its office.
But Sarkisyan died hours later. Despite its reversal, Cigna wrote in an e-mail statement released to reporters before Sarkisyan died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in her case. The UCLA doctors had written that patients in situations similar to Sarkisyan's who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.
0コメント