S.B. v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation


Case: 17-14102 Date Filed: 04/18/2018 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 17-14102 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:17-cv-00075-RWS S.B., on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus TENET HEALTHCARE CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ________________________ (April 18, 2018) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, NEWSOM and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 17-14102 Date Filed: 04/18/2018 Page: 2 of 10 S.B. appeals the dismissal with prejudice of her amended complaint against Tenet Healthcare Corporation. S.B. sought, on behalf of herself and other Hispanic women, reimbursement for travel and medical expenses allegedly incurred as a result of an agreement that Tenet had with Clinica de la Mama to refer pregnant immigrants who were eligible for emergency Medicare coverage to Tenet-owned hospitals for labor and delivery services. The district court ruled that S.B. failed to state a claim for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, or breach of the implied duty of good faith and that her claims for money had and received and unjust enrichment were untimely. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND Clinica offered prenatal care and ancillary services to predominantly uninsured and indigent Hispanic women residing in Georgia. For a fee, Clinica assigned a pregnant woman to a doctor who provided prenatal and delivery services at a designated hospital. After delivery of a baby, the hospital became eligible for Medicaid payments for the prenatal, delivery, and newborn services. Tenet owned several for-profit hospitals that received payments from Medicaid for delivery and newborn services, including the Atlanta Medical Center. Tenet contracted with Clinica to provide management, marketing, and translation services for Tenet hospitals. In actuality, Tenet paid Clinica kickbacks for referring 2 Case: 17-14102 Date Filed: 04/18/2018 Page: 3 of 10 pregnant Hispanic women who were eligible to receive emergency Medicaid benefits to Tenet hospitals. In 2006, Clinica advised S.B., who was uninsured, to enroll in an emergency Medicaid program. Clinica assigned S.B. to an obstetrician who, Clinica represented, had to deliver S.B.’s baby at Atlanta Medical to ensure that Medicaid covered her prenatal and delivery costs. Although S.B. would have preferred to use a hospital closer to her home, she delivered her child at Atlanta Medical. S.B. incurred “a variety of higher costs” at Atlanta Medical, including co-payments and invoices for expenses that exceeded her Medicaid coverage. In 2009, S.B. conceived twins and returned to Clinica. S.B. was insured, but Clinica advised S.B. to enroll in the emergency Medicaid program because her insurance policy would not pay the costs of her high-risk pregnancy. Clinica referred S.B. to Dr. Wendell Hackney, who informed S.B. that she was required to deliver her twins at Atlanta Medical. And Clinica warned that it would terminate S.B.’s prenatal services if she visited another hospital. Dr. Hackney, other doctors, and staff at Atlanta Medical instructed S.B. that she had to return to the hospital for prenatal services and for her delivery, ...

Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals