Aetna Receives Final Approval For Miami HMO Litigation Settlement

Aetna also has agreed to persuade large benefits administrators to give it more accurate eligibility information. Aetna is supposed to track administrators' speed at removing terminated plan members from plan eligibility files and help develop systems that will extract eligibility information directly from employer payroll systems.

Other agreement provisions call for Aetna to pay $100 million to the doctors, or about $140 per doctor; to contribute $20 million to a health quality foundation; to pay $50 million in legal fees; to set up an independent billing appeals process; and to give doctors more information about how it handles medical claims.

Aetna has accepted the agreement to resolve its share of the managed care lawsuits now being heard in Miami. Lawyers began organizing suits in 1999. The federal courts put many of the suits under Moreno's jurisdiction in October 2000.

Aetna has posted links to information about its settlement at http://www.aetna.com/legal_issues/suits/agreement.html