S.C. High Court Rules on Hospital Insurance
By Ben Werner, The State, Columbia, S.C.
Mar. 11–State law does not guarantee uninsured hospital patients the same discounts offered insured patients, according to an S.C. Supreme Court ruling Monday.
The high court overturned a lower court decision that had said a loophole in state law gave all patients — whether they paid hospital bills out of pocket or with insurance — the same discounts through 2004.
These discounts could shave 50 percent or more off a typical hospital bill, said Cam Lewis, the Columbia attorney representing uninsured patients before the Supreme Court.
Lewis still plans to press a lawsuit against several state hospitals, including three in Columbia, alleging the uninsured patients were cheated.
“They say the statute doesn’t apply and we say it’s unfair to give discounts,” Lewis said.
The Supreme Court ruling does make Lewis’ job a bit harder now since he can’t base his case on an existing state law. Instead, Lewis said he will use the notion of common law and what’s fair.
Lewis had argued a little-known loophole in state law required hospitals to offer anyone the best rate possible if their bills were paid within seven days.
But the S.C. Supreme Court justices agreed with the lawyers representing the hospitals, who said the loophole was being misinterpreted, and it was closed in 2006.
Greenville attorney Sam Mabry, who is one of the lead lawyers for the hospitals, Monday declined to comment.
Previously, the hospitals’ lawyers had said insurance companies no longer use the types of contracts referred to by the loophole.
In their ruling, the high court justices said the loophole does not apply anymore because of how health care funding has changed since the law was first passed in the 1960s.
Reach Werner at (803) 771-8509
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