HEALTH OPTIONS v. Palmetto Pathology Servs.

983 So. 2d 608, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 5506, 2008 WL 1733673
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 16, 2008
Docket3D07-1453
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 983 So. 2d 608 (HEALTH OPTIONS v. Palmetto Pathology Servs.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
HEALTH OPTIONS v. Palmetto Pathology Servs., 983 So. 2d 608, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 5506, 2008 WL 1733673 (Fla. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

983 So.2d 608 (2008)

HEALTH OPTIONS, INC., Appellant,
v.
PALMETTO PATHOLOGY SERVICES, P.A., etc., Appellee.

No. 3D07-1453.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

April 16, 2008.
Rehearing and Rehearing Denied June 20, 2008.

*610 McDermott Will & Emery and Steven E. Siff and Michael G. Austin and Justin B. Uhlemann, Miami, for appellant.

Colson Hicks Eidson and Ervin Gonzalez and Patrick Montoya, Coral Gables,; *611 Ross & Girten and Lauri Waldman Ross, Miami, for appellee.

Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Steven R. Weinstein and Robert C. Leitner, Miami, for The Florida Society of Pathologists, The American Pathology Foundation and The Florida Hospital Association, as amicus curiae.

Steven M. Ziegler and Andres Gonzalez, Hollywood, for The Florida Association of Health Plans, as amicus curiae.

Mateer & Harbert and David L. Evans, Orlando; Sidley Austin and Jack R. Bierig and Richard D. Raskin, for the College of American Pathologists, American Medical Association, and Florida Medical Association, as amicus curiae.

Before WELLS, ROTHENBERG, and SALTER, JJ.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied June 20, 2008.

SALTER, J.

Health Options, Inc. ("HOI"), a health maintenance organization ("HMO"), appeals an amended final judgment entered after a directed verdict on liability and jury verdict on damages, each in favor of Palmetto Pathology Services ("PPS"). PPS is a group of pathologists rendering services through their laboratories in area hospitals. We affirm.

I. The Parties and Their Claims

HOI is Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida's HMO. HOI provides medical services to commercial, non-Medicare subscribing members in exchange for premium payments. This arrangement is memorialized in a contract between the member and HOI. The contract outlines which services are covered under HOI's plan, and refers to the "applicable state and federal laws and regulations" governing HOI's duties to its members.

HOI's primary duty is to provide coverage for "medically necessary" services and supplies.[1] HOI enters into contracts with hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers in many cases, negotiating stipulated prices and other terms for particular services rendered to HOI's members. In other cases, as here, a specialist or provider may be a "non-participating" or "non-contracted" provider, with the result that the amount of reimbursement payable for services or equipment rendered to an HOI member may be in dispute.

PPS is a group of medical doctors, board-certified pathologists, and their employees. PPS provides professional anatomic and clinical pathology services, including laboratory analysis, to HOI's members in two area hospitals. HOI and PPS had a written agreement regarding the price of those services through 1999, but in that year HOI refused to continue paying for one component of such services.[2] HOI refers to that component as "non-patient specific services," characterizing it essentially as an element of overhead, while PPS refers to these services as the "professional component of clinical pathology" or "PC-CP." We refer to such services by PPS as the "disputed services," *612 because the lawsuit below turns on whether HOI must compensate PPS for them.[3]

The effect of HOI's refusal to pay for this professional component of the total cost of operating the pathology labs (including supervision) is that the amount paid by HOI to the participating hospital for PPS's service is less than the total amount asserted by PPS to comprise a reasonable total charge for the services provided to HOI's members.

HOI maintains that its contract with the hospitals fixes the amount payable by HOI for the in-hospital pathology services rendered to members. HOI argues that the hospitals compensate PPS in accordance with the HOI-hospital contract and by providing PPS an office and other occupancy expenses within the hospital without charge. HOI asserts that it has no statutory, contractual, or common law obligation to pay PPS directly for the disputed services.

The hospitals are not parties to the lawsuit. They have agreed not to directly bill HOI's members, and they receive stipulated payments for the pathology lab work done for the members by PPS's in-hospital laboratories.[4] Again, however, those stipulated payments did not include a component for reimbursement of PPS's disputed services. As a "non-participating provider" of these services, PPS was nonetheless prohibited (by section 641.3154(4), Florida Statutes (2007)) from directly billing HOI's members if PPS knew or should have known that HOI was liable for payment. As to the disputed services, therefore, PPS was not being paid by the hospitals, could not collect from HOI's members, and was not being reimbursed by HOI. PPS commenced its lawsuit below to seek a remedy.

II. Procedural History

PPS sought to recover payment for the disputed services. In its second amended complaint, PPS asserted claims against HOI for declaratory relief, breach of implied contract, quantum meruit, open account, account stated, and breach of third-party beneficiary contract.

HOI removed the case to federal court, alleging that PPS's third-party beneficiary claim was preempted by ERISA[5] and thus a federal question. The federal district court disagreed and remanded the case back to state court. Specifically, the federal court found that HOI could not establish any of the elements required for ERISA preemption. Once the case returned to state court, HOI raised "ERISA preemption" as an affirmative defense.

Prior to trial in the state court, PPS provided HOI with a damages report and summary. This report and summary were compiled from billing records that were in HOI's possession. The report reflected damages in the amount of $1,234,957.55, not including interest. Pre-trial motions in limine were filed pertaining to various *613 aspects of the evidence. Following these motions, PPS removed several charges, and the damage summary was reduced to $1,132,218.70, excluding interest. HOI raises an issue here regarding the timeliness of PPS's revised (and reduced) damage summary.

HOI made two arguments regarding non-payment of PPS for the disputed services. First, HOI asserted that the disputed services were not compensable because they were not rendered by the pathologists to patients face-to-face. Second, HOI claimed it was double-paying for these services since a payment had already been rendered to the hospitals.

PPS responded by arguing that HOI had unilaterally stopped paying for the disputed services as a way to cut costs, but still expected PPS to provide the services. PPS also alleged that HOI never changed its contracts with the hospitals even though HOI negotiated (unsuccessfully) with the hospitals to make them liable to PPS for the disputed services. Additionally, PPS alleged that unlike Medicare, HOI did not increase payment to the hospitals to cover the disputed services.

At the close of PPS's case, HOI moved for directed verdict. Neither HOI's written motion nor its argument asserted that PPS made unauthorized charges to HOI, or that PPS did not follow HOI's approval process. The trial court reserved ruling on HOI's motion.

HOI renewed its motion at the close of the evidence, and PPS also moved for directed verdict. PPS voluntarily withdrew count V, its claim for account stated.

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Bluebook (online)
983 So. 2d 608, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 5506, 2008 WL 1733673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/health-options-v-palmetto-pathology-servs-fladistctapp-2008.