In Brief: Anthem Settles Class Action Suit; Scores of Hospitals Receive High Grades From Leapfrog

Anthem Settles Class Action Suits Over Mid-Year Policy Changes

Anthem Blue Cross of California has agreed to settle two class-action lawsuits accusing the insurer of making mid-year changes to insurance policies that impacted the out-of-pocket costs for enrollees.

The settlement includes an $8.3 million refund to about 50,000 enrollees who had been impacted by mid-year increases in deductibles and co-payments during 2011, according to Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, which had initiated the litigation in partnership with a Los Angeles law firm.

Consumer Watchdog had argued that the mid-year changes to policies amounted to a de facto reduction in an enrollees’ benefits.

"Anthem should be commended for listening to the heartfelt concerns of its policyholders. This settlement gives consumers the peace-of-mind of knowing that their 'annual' out-of-pocket costs won't change in the middle of the year," said Consumer Watchdog lead attorney Jerry Flanagan.

Scores Of Hospitals Receive High Grades From Leapfrog

Eighty-eight hospitals in California received “A” grades from the Leapfrog Group for their overall safety, according to a new survey released by the Washington, D.C.-based organization.

Altogether, 34.6% of the 254 hospitals surveyed by Leapfrog received an “A” grade. That placed California 11th nationwide in terms of the proportion of the safest hospitals.

Hospitals are surveyed on 28 different measures of safety, including physician staffing in the intensive care unit; care of patients under ventilator care; hand hygiene practices; reconciliation of medications and leadership systems and structures, among others. The data is primarily gathered from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with Leapfrog’s own survey data.

Along with the “A” grades in California, 69 facilties received “Bs,” 72 received “Cs”; 23 received “Ds” and five received “F” grades.

The one significant hospital to receive a failing grade was Loma Linda University Medical Center’s campus in Murrieta. It had lower-than-average scores for patient deaths from serious but treatable medical complications; the halting after antibiotics shortly after surgery; blood and urinary tract infection rates among ICU patients; surgical site infection rates after colon surgeries; and air embolisms in the bloodstream.

UCLA To Lead Decades-Long Depression Study

UCLA Healthcare said it would allocate $525 million over the next decade to study genetic links to depression as part of a federal effort to mitigate the health and economic impacts of depression.

UCLA officials said they would spend the next 35 years studying the genetic links to depression in 100,000 test subjects as part of a federal “grand challenge” to try and allievate the impacts of the condition. The goal is to cut the overall impact of depression in the U.S. in half by the year 2050.