One of the nation's largest providers of psychitric health care escalated its feud with the insurance industry Thursday by filing a federal lawsuit that seeks at least $750 million in damages.
Natinal Medical Enterprises' subsidiary, Psychiatric Properties, says in its lawsuit that a group of insurance companies conspired to defame NME and to harm its business.The lawsuit also says that the insurance firms "withheld tens of millions of dollars in payments for the treatment of thousands of acutely ill patients" at NME psychiatric hospitals.
A group of insurance companies sued NME last year, saying that it bilked them out of millions of dollars by giving incorrect diagnoses to deplete patients' insurance policies and then dropped the patients after the insurance coverage had been exhausted.
NME also sued insurance companies last year. But Washington lawyer Bobby Burchfield, who is representing NME, said Thursday's lawsuit represented "a new aggressiveness" on its part.
The lawsuit, which asks for tripled damages, says the harm suffered by NME amounts to at least $250 million.
Among the insurance companies named as defendants are Aetna, Prudential, Omaha Life, Northwestern, Hartford and Met Life.
The lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Harold Greene.