Corporate health plan backing for S.B. 1274 became crystal clear on Friday. When the media needed a spokesperson on behalf of the bill, UnitedHealth offered up its local Honolulu lawyer.
UnitedHealth (or Evercare as they are known in Hawaii) could not have made their interest in the passage of S.B. 1274 clearer. The attorney they used is the same one who defends Evercare whenever a patient appeals to the external review panel the company's denial of medically necessary medications, treatments or services.
S.B. 1274 was recently amended to be retroactive to January 1, automatically dismissing all current cases. UnitedHealth is the defendant in eleven of twelve pending cases, so this amendment alone could be saving the company as much as $500,000.
The plaintiffs' attorney in all those cases is Honolulu lawyer Rafael del Castillo. Del Castillo only takes cases "on a contingency basis." That means he accepts no money from clients up front, even when actual hard costs are incurred for expert testimony. Del Castillo is only paid or reimbursed for the expert fees and other costs to the extent the Insurance Commissioner orders the health plan administrators to pay them.
Alston Hunt does not have to depend on the Insurance Commissioner for its fees. It gets paid no matter what, with our money. I wonder how many legal hours Alston Hunt got to bill UnitedHealth for strategizing how to be the best spokesperson for the bill?
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