Dec 11, 2024
Today, our firm filed a significant federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Healthcare Living for Families Inc. (HCLF), a minority-owned outpatient mental health treatment center in Baltimore, against Optum Maryland and the State of Maryland. This marks our third recent legal action addressing systematic discrimination and devastating financial harm caused by Optum Maryland's improper denial of valid healthcare claims and problematic accounting procedures.
The lawsuit alleges that since 2020, HCLF has endured a pattern of discriminatory treatment that has pushed this vital mental health provider to the brink of insolvency. Despite HCLF's continuous service to vulnerable populations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Optum Maryland systematically denied valid claims while approving similar claims from non-minority owned providers. Most recently, Maryland's Central Collection Unit (CCU) has been aggressively collecting an alleged debt of over $154,000 through 100% withholding of Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements owed to HCLF, despite significant discrepancies and inconsistencies in Optum Maryland's data that was used to calculate the debt amount. Documentation shows the CCU has continued these aggressive collection tactics even after HCLF challenged the validity of the debt and identified numerous irregularities in Optum Maryland's accounting.
"This pattern of wrongful conduct by Optum Maryland, coupled with Maryland's deliberate indifference to the matter, has created a crisis for minority-owned healthcare providers serving our most vulnerable communities," said Attorney Jordan D. Howlette, who represents HCLF. "Maryland's aggressive collection practices are based on unreliable and inconsistent data, yet the State continues to withhold 100% of federal payments that these vital healthcare providers need to serve their communities. This pattern of conduct threatens to destroy minority-owned healthcare businesses and cut off access to essential mental health services for our most vulnerable populations."
This case follows our recent filings on behalf of Omnis Health Life and Choice Pain & Rehabilitation Center, which raised similar allegations regarding discriminatory practices in Maryland's Public Behavioral Health System. Together, these cases seek to address systematic issues that disproportionately harm minority-owned healthcare providers and threaten access to vital mental health services in Maryland's most underserved communities.