Boston Medical Center and Boston Medical Center Health Plan Inc. have settled charges that they used protected health information to deceptively market insurance.
As part of a consent judgment obtained by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the hospital and its insurance arm will pay $562,000 to the state.
According to Coakley’s office, the defendants sent misleading direct mail letters to 1,200 Neighborhood Health Plan members and 1,400 Network Health members. The pieces claimed that the members had to switch to the hospital’s insurer to “continue getting care at Boston Medical Center,” the state alleged.
It chose the members based on their health data, Coakley’s office continued.
The hospital said it regrets any confusion the letters created, according to the Boston Herald. In addition, it sent correction letters to patients who received the solicitations, Coakley’s office said.
The judgment also requires that Boston Medical Center engage a third-party firm to “audit its compliance with federal and state consumer protection standards,” the office continued.
Of the money being paid to the state, $430,000 will go to Mass Health, a public insurance program for low- and medium-income people, $112,000 to the Attorney General’s Local Consumer Aid Fund and $20,000 will cover attorney’s fees.
“As we expand health coverage to the uninsured, it is particularly important that hospitals and insurers do not overlook state consumer and patient privacy laws when marketing their health plans,” Coakley said in a statement.
The settlement is on file with Suffolk Superior Court.
