Area residents in line to benefit after expected Holzer settlement
By Jim Phillips
Athens NEWS Senior Writer
May 12, 2008
A nearly finalized settlement in a federal class-action lawsuit could mean that nearly 200 area residents, including around 40 from Athens County, will have their outstanding medical debts to the Holzer Clinic forgiven. Each member of the lawsuit class is also slated to receive $100 once the settlement goes into effect.
The total amount of medical bills involved in the settlement, according to attorney Steven C. Shane of Bellevue, Ky., is estimated at around $330,000.
Shane, acting on behalf of two women from Athens and Glouster, respectively, filed suit in U.S. District Court against the Gallia County-based Holzer Clinic, Inc., and a Gallipolis attorney, Douglas M. Cowles, who handled debt collection for the clinic.
The suit alleged that Cowles broke state and federal laws, which require any debt-collection action to be filed in a court located either where the debt was incurred or where the debtor lives. It claimed that Cowles has filed many such collection suits on behalf of Holzer in Gallia County Municipal Court, even though the debtors named in the actions lived up to 100 miles away and obtained health care at the company’s clinics outside of Gallia County.
In a proposed settlement filed in the federal court last month, Holzer agreed to vacate all debts owed by those who qualified for inclusion in the suit, and to pay each person $100, as well as cover court costs. In return, the plaintiffs will drop their suit. The defendants admit no wrongdoing.
A list of the 195 people that Holzer believes qualify for inclusion in the settlement (in addition to the two named plaintiffs, Pamela M. Tedrow of Athens and Tonya L. Pallo of Glouster), has also been filed with the court.
It includes 14 people from Athens, seven from Nelsonville, four from Glouster, three each from Albany and Trimble, two each from Jacksonville and The Plains, and one apiece from Millfield, Shade, Chauncey, Stewart and Chesterhill.
Most others on the list are from Ohio counties near Gallia County, with some from West Virginia and Kentucky, and a handful from as far away as South Carolina and California.
Shane said he’s not fully convinced that the list, provided by Holzer, contains anywhere near all the people who were sued in Gallia County for debts owed to the clinic, but who lived and ran up their bills elsewhere.
“They definitely don’t keep adequate records,” the attorney alleged. “They tell us there’s 195, and we have no way to disprove it. I sometimes lose a little sleep at night thinking about that 195 figure. I just can’t believe it.”
Initially, Shane had suggested that the number of debtors qualified to join in the suit might have been around 1,100.
Columbus attorney Elizabeth A. McNellie, who represents the clinic, said Shane is mistaken if he thinks there are more plaintiffs out there who haven’t been discovered.
“I can tell you that Holzer has made a diligent review of its records, and that 195 is a complete list of the people who were impacted,” she said.
Despite his misgivings on the number, however, Shane called the settlement “one of the best we’ve ever negotiated.” He noted that some people on the list of class-action plaintiffs owed debts to Holzer as large as $25,000, which “will all disappear.” On top of that they will get the $100 payoff, which Shane suggested is a relative pittance and much less important than the debt relief.
McNellie said Holzer is “as satisfied as anyone ever is with a settlement.”
Shane noted that the court has already approved the settlement, and all that remains is to hold a so-called “fairness hearing” June 30, in which anyone who opposes the pact can come forward and state his or her case.
News of the pending settlement will also be published in a variety of regional newspapers, including The Athens NEWS, The Athens Messenger, and The Columbus Dispatch, in hopes of alerting anyone who might qualify for the lawsuit class but hasn’t yet been identified.
Shane noted that he included an escape clause in the proposed settlement, such that if 10 or more new qualified plaintiffs come forward, the settlement comes off the table and the lawsuit is re-activated.
“It’s a good settlement,” he reiterated. “My only concern is that they’ve identified all the class members.”
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