A recent lawsuit claims that Quest Diagnostic Services violated federal law when it placed an unapproved number on its customer’s bill for diagnostic testing services. The complaint further claims that the company failed to provide a refund when the customer requested a refund. According to the TCPA lawsuit, Quest Diagnostic Services placed an unapproved number on the bill of a customer in January without her permission, which, under federal law, means express permission to use a number for business purposes. The customer then filed a chargeback against Quest Diagnostic Services, charging that the company did not provide authorization for placing an unapproved number on her bill. In a recent court hearing, Quest Diagnostic Services attempted to defeat the chargeback by filing an answer that essentially says they are not responsible if the customer’s bill is returned or if there is a refund due because they did not provide authorization for placing an unapproved number on the bill.
As stated above, Quest Diagnostics is currently contesting the OH lawsuit. If successful, this could set a precedent for other companies in the healthcare industry. However, at the time of this article’s writing, Quest Diagnostic Services has not responded to or denied the allegations. I reached out to them via email asking if they plan to pursue the lawsuit; their response can be found here.
A Quest Diagnostics Certification and Service lawsuit are actually one of several class action lawsuits currently underway in the state of Ohio. It is being brought on behalf of John Doe, a former Quest Diagnostic Services technician who claims he was discriminated against while working for the company. In a related matter, a former employee of Quest Diagnostic Services’ Okemos Medical LLC claims in a Class Action Lawsuit that the company did not properly train employees on H-1B requirements. These are only a few of the lawsuits in the State of Ohio that involve Quest Diagnostic Services.
The claim in the Ohio Class Action Lawsuit focuses on the negligent hiring and discipline practices of the company. According to the complaint, Quest failed to instruct its employees as required by Ohio State Department of Health Services Bylaws regarding H-1B non-requisites, which would prevent employers from using in-house auto-diallers instead of out-of-state or federal-approved auto-diallers. Further, it was found that although the company was in violation of the state’s auto-dialler laws since at least 1996, no disciplinary action has ever been taken against the company. Further, it was found that during one point in time, an applicant who did not have a valid H-1B visa was allowed to work in the United States under the theory that he would bring workers with him who would be eligible for employment in that country. Finally, it was discovered that over a three year period, over one hundred claims for benefits arose out of the disability cheating of approximately thirteen hundred immigrants. The Class Action Lawsuit further claims that Quest was aware that it was violating the federal H-1B visa laws by failing to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who did not possess the proper visa information.
As per the details in the California Class Action Lawsuit, the plaintiff’s main problem was that Quest did not use an employee monitoring system that would prevent their employees from accessing company resources and data files without authorization. This resulted in the plaintiffs’ personal information being stolen by one of their co-workers. The employee further proceeded to misappropriate medical billing information by submitting it for reimbursement to different clients. Subsequently, the co-worker committed suicide by hanging himself in his work cubicle. The lawsuit then moved to the California District Court, requesting that the court force Quest to retroactively install anti-spam software that will detect all emails that contain potential medical billinging sensitive information. It was also requested that the court require Quest to train all its employees concerning the risks associated with using medical billing software.
The Class Action Lawsuit was later moved to the United States District Court, Eastern District of California. On July 5th, the lawsuit was re-filed in the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia. The complaint names as defendants: Quest Diagnostic Medical Products LLC, Quest Medical Corporation and GlaxoSmithKline plc. A pretrial conference has been scheduled for August 14th in the case. A pretrial conference is normally a one-time opportunity for a defendant to enter into a plea bargain with a plaintiff’s attorney before a judge decides on the case.
