Discovery Is Relevant To Horizon Plan Row, NJ Justices Say

Michael Furey was quoted in seven news publications about a recent court ruling that found that hospitals suing New Jersey's largest insurer, over its two-tier provider system, may obtain the report of a consultant the insurer used in selecting hospitals for the preferred tier of the plan as well as the agreements the insurer entered into with the preferred hospitals. Day Pitney is representing three New Jersey hospitals in the lawsuit against Horizon Healthcare relating to its value based health plan called Omnia. In a unanimous decision, the justices reasoned that the information is relevant to the plaintiff hospitals' claims that the selection process was flawed and that any confidentiality concerns could be addressed by the use of a protective order. The ruling reversed an Appellate Division decision denying the plaintiff hospitals discovery of the consultant's report and Horizon's agreements with the preferred hospitals. In the article, "Discovery Is Relevant To Horizon Plan Row, NJ Justices Say," published in Law360, Furey, as an attorney for the three plaintiff hospitals, hailed the decision, saying, "The more we learn about the Omnia plan through this lawsuit, the more we know that, instead of relying upon objective health care criteria, Horizon pre-selected the state's largest and most expensive hospitals to be Tier 1 providers." Furey was also quoted in "Consultant Report Must Be Turned Over in Suit Over Health Insurer's Plan in the New Jersey Law Journal; "Court Rules Hospitals Suing Horizon Can Have Access to Omnia Documents," in  Politico.com "Updated: Supreme Court sides with hospitals over Horizon disclosure" in NJBIZ; "NJ Supreme Court Rules Against Horizon in Fight With Hospitals" in Observer.com; "Horizon loses court battle with N.J. hospitals over keeping OMNIA records secret" in NJ.com, "NJ's Top Court Rules Horizon Must Divulge Details of 'Secret' Omnia Plan" in NJSpotlight.com.