The Artvoice reported today that Blue Shield California twice refused to pay $2,700 emergency room claims by Rosalinda Miran-Ramirez, concluding that it was not a “reasonable” decision for her to go to the emergency room that morning when she awoke to a shirt saturated from blood with what turned out to be a breast tumor. Only after KPIX-TV reported the story did the insurance company pay the claim. Further, it reported that the National Women’s Law Center found that the laws of eight states permit insurance companies to deny health coverage to a battered spouse (as a “pre-existing condition”) since batterers tend to be recidivists.

Court Seals Documents at Expense of Consumer Safety
An AAJ article June 4, 2009 looks at the practice of courts sealing litigation documents to the advantage of manufacturers in certain product cases. For example, Bausch & Lomb settled hundreds of cases involving contact solution that involved blindness where the court ordered the documents to be sealed.