A Los Angeles Superior Court Jury ordered Health Net to pay $14.42 million, including $6.92 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages, to a woman who alleged the health care giant caused her to become addicted to opiate pain medication, which she was prescribed only after she had already unnecessarily waited months for Health Net to provide timely referrals to specialists.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury reached its verdict on Monday, after only a few hours of deliberations.The case is Elaine Courtney v. Health Net, Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. 18STCV05327.

“The fundamental defect in plaintiff’s claims is that Health Net Inc. was not responsible for providing or authorizing plaintiff’s care and, when plaintiff raised issues about her treatment through the grievance process of her health plan, Health Net … responded promptly and authorized the requested treatment,” the Health Net attorneys maintained.

But plaintiff’s attorney Travis Corby called the case an important one for the health insurance industry and for Medi-Cal recipients. According to a press release by her attorneys, Ms. Courtney needed urgent medical care for a pelvic prolapse issue that was causing her extreme pain.

In February 2017, Ms. Courtney received an urgent referral to a colorectal specialist for a surgical consult. According to the health plan, an appointment should have been made available within 96 hours. But she was told that the correct specialist was not available to her under her Health Net Medi-Cal plan and she was instead sent back to a general surgeon that she had already seen that was admittedly not specialized to fix her problem.

Meanwhile, Health Net had 25 colorectal surgeons available in its Southern California network but refused to allow access to any of them.

As a result, Ms. Courtney was made to wait until August 22, 2017 to see a qualified specialist. Even then, she experienced additional delays from the health plan. The specialist doctor’s surgical request were then denied on five separate occasions over four months, because of issues with the network. Again, Ms. Courtney repeatedly reached out to Health Net, pleading for help, but it did nothing to overturn the denials.

Ms. Courtney was not able to get in for surgery until December 13, 2017 – a ten-month delay. As a result, Ms. Courtney became dependent on opioid pain medication that was only first prescribed to her months into the delay while she waited to Health Net to arrange and provide access to specialists.

During that year, Ms. Courtney suffered immense pain and was given the runaround by Health Net’s bureaucracy. All the while, Health Net was on notice that she was unable to care for her four children, that her condition prevented her from using the bathroom without intervention, that she was in extreme pain, and that she had been prescribed the opioid pain medication to manage the pain while waiting for surgery.

“Hopefully this verdict sends a message to Health Net and other health plans,” Corby said.