Lawyer seeking immediate help for Health Link customers
The wheels of justice are grinding too slowly for Las Vegan Jill Parker.
Parker needed a cancer biopsy months ago. She’s been unable to get one despite paying nearly $400 in premiums in December to the state’s Nevada Health Link insurance exchange. Parker’s coverage was supposed to begin Jan. 1, but her insurer says she’s not in their system. Parker said neither she nor her husband, Robert, have gotten answers on their coverage status from Nevada Health Link or its contractor, Xerox.
Meanwhile, Parker is looking at roughly $20,000 in out-of-pocket costs to determine whether she has cervical cancer, thyroid cancer or another condition that’s causing her swollen lymph nodes.
“Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel,” Parker said.
Parker is part of a class-action lawsuit filed by 200 plaintiffs who say they paid for exchange plans yet still have no coverage because of technical glitches. But Parker and nearly 10 other plaintiffs are gravely ill and need immediate medical attention, said their attorney, Matthew Callister of Callister, Immerman & Associates.
So Callister announced Wednesday that he will file a lawsuit for injunctive relief that would require the state or Xerox to provide immediate health coverage.
“This is urgent and emergent. These patients are suffering life-and-death consequences now,” Callister said. “The class-action system is simply not geared up for that kind of quick action. The urgency is now. I’m so sick of seeing Cliven Bundy on TV that I want to vomit. That (issue) does not affect the lives of 7,000 people (who may have paid but lack coverage). These people paid for a plan. They did what the government said. Then they show up on our doorstep the day before they die.”
Xerox said in a statement that it is concentrating on fixing Nevada Health Link’s problems.
“We will await the appropriate legal venue to respond to any of the matters raised by Mr. Callister. We will let the facts of these matters come out at the appropriate time and place. In the meantime, we continue focusing our energies and resources on getting all aspects of the Nevada Health Link system right and helping as many Nevadans as possible get health insurance. … We will continue to work diligently with consumers, carriers and others — every day — to help Nevadans get access to healthcare through Nevada Health Link.”
A Callister spokesman said he expects the injunction to be filed Thursday morning. Callister said help for patients could come as quickly as 48 hours after the filing.
As of Wednesday morning, Aubry Domeikis was also weighing joining the motion for injunctive relief. Nevada Health Link erroneously funneled Domekis and her husband into Medicaid, even though the couple told customer-service reps that they made too much money to qualify for the state-run insurance program for low-income earners. The exchange realized its mistake in April, canceled the couple’s coverage, and told them they weren’t eligible for a private plan until June 1.
But based on regulations in the Affordable Care Act, which set up the state and federal insurance exchanges, the couple should have been eligible for a new plan on May 1, Callister said.
Meanwhile, Domeikis is fighting a bone infection for which she needs daily antibiotic infusions. Right now, she’s paying for the $800-a-week treatments out of pocket. She’s taking only half of the dose her doctors have recommended because she can’t afford the full regimen.
Exchange carrier Health Plan of Nevada told Domeikis Tuesday night that it would cover her effective May 1, but Callister said Domeikis “has heard that before.”
Other plaintiffs pursuing immediate access to care include people with brain and skin cancer, Callister said.
Callister called the coverage problems a “breach of the first order by Xerox.” He released a May 7 email from Xerox representatives to local insurance broker Pat Casale saying customer-service reps “do not have the functionality (i.e., submit button)” to confirm Domeikis’ application and forward it to a carrier.
The technical flaw is the latest in a string of errors and problems that began when Nevada Health Link launched on Oct. 1. Despite posting well over 1 million unique page views, the website saw just 35,034 paid enrollments by May 10, as myriad software glitches kept people from applying or paying.
The exchange board had initially targeted 118,000 sign-ups in the website’s first year.
A special enrollment period for people who had trouble applying during the six-month open enrollment period runs through May 30.
The exchange board has scheduled a Tuesday meeting to discuss whether it will let Xerox, which has a $72 million contract, stay on as Nevada Health Link’s contractor, or move to another state or federal exchange platform.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.
