Settlement Unlikely With Cigna, Doctors

Lawyers for Cigna Corp. and U.S. doctors claiming the company cheated them out of reimbursements will meet today in federal court in Miami, but a settlement is unlikely, officials on both sides said Monday.

Cigna and Aetna Inc. are attempting to break away from the industry to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by an estimated 700,000 doctors who claim HMOs meddle in doctors’ care of patients by arbitrarily denying specialist referrals and cutting short hospital stays to trim costs.

A federal judge gave preliminary approval in May to Aetna’s $100-million pact to settle with doctors, excluding that health plan from the broader lawsuit.

Aetna agreed to pay doctors faster and set up an appeals process for doctors to protest rejected claims.

The initial aim of today’s meeting between Cigna and doctors was to bring a settlement before the court, but the two sides do not yet have a deal, said Archie Lamb, attorney for the doctors.

Miami federal Judge Federico Moreno late last year blocked Cigna from settling with a smaller group of doctors in Illinois to escape culpability in the class-action suit against health maintenance organizations. He said Cigna needed to settle with all doctors at once.

Attorneys for many other big health plans, including UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Health Networks Inc., have vowed to fight the charges.

Lamb said “Cigna is way ahead” of the other defendants in edging toward settlement, but did not elaborate.