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payment from other patients was both discoverable and admissible to challenge the reasonableness of the hospital’s charges and lien); In re: North Cypress Med., 559 S.W. 3d 128 (Tex. 2018) (amounts the hospital “accepts as payment for those services from other patients, including those covered by private insurance and government benefits, are relevant to whether the charges to [the patient] were reasonable...”); Bowden v. The Med. Ctr., Inc., 297 Ga. 285 (2015) (“fair and reasonable value of goods and services
is often determined by considering what similar buyers and sellers have paid and received for the same product in the same market, with adjustments upward or downward made to account for pertinent differences, and we see no reason why the same cannot be true of health care”); Temple Univ. Hosp., Inc. v. Healthcare Mgmt., 832 A.2d 501, 508 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2003) (Medical services are worth what people ordinarily pay for them)
14 See also, Mora v. Home Depo U.S.A., Inc., Order, Case No. 11-60170-CIV, 2012 WL 13040088 (S.D. Fla., Mar. 8, 2012) (requiring non-party medical provider to produce documents that reflect payment and pricing practices with respect to patients, other than plaintiff, who received the same treatment).
15 See Hasson, supra (relevance outweighed the non-party’s right to protect the requested information as a trade secret).
16 Summitbridge Nat’l Inv., LLC v. Palm Harbor, L.L.C., 67 So.3d 448 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011).
17 See, e.g., Mora, supra (requiring confidentiality limiting the use of information to the litigation only).
18 See also, Dillon vs. Steven Kuehl, Order, Case No. 51-2017-CA-002871-CAAX-WS (Fla. Cir. Ct. Nov. 20, 2020) (holding that “evidence concerning the amounts routinely accepts as full payment from other patients for the same treatment undergone by the Plaintiffs is admissible at trial”).
Erik Crep is an FDCC Defense Counsel Member at Wicker Smith in Coral Gables, FL. Contact him at: ecrep@wickersmith.com.
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