Sutter Health settles class-action lawsuit for $228.5 million
THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE IS FOR PREMIUM MEMBERS
Sutter Health will pay $228.5 million to settle a long-running antitrust lawsuit alleging its contracting practices drove up health care premiums for millions of Californians.
Sutter Health has agreed to pay $228.5 million to settle a long-running federal class-action lawsuit that accused the health system of anticompetitive contracting practices that raised health insurance premiums for millions across the state.
The lawsuit, first filed in 2012, accused Sutter Health of forcing insurers into "all-or-nothing" contracts that required them to include all of Sutter's hospitals and clinics in their networks, even if only a few were needed. Plaintiffs alleged the practice shut out cheaper alternatives and led to more than $400 million in overcharges for patients and businesses, according to the settlement agreement filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The certified class of plaintiffs includes more than 3 million Californians who paid premiums to Aetna Inc., Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, Health Net or UnitedHealthcare between 2011 and 2021. If the court grants final approval, eligible class members will receive a share of the $228.5 million settlement fund.
GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY
Find Local Events Near You
Connect with a community of local professionals.
Explore All Events
In a joint statement issued with plaintiffs' counsel Constantine Cannon LLP, Sutter said it denied any wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement to avoid the burden, distraction, and expense of continued litigation.
'Today, under our new leadership, Sutter is staying focused on our mission: strengthening our coordinated care continuum and improving access to comprehensive, personalized and compassionate care across the region,' the system said.
Sutter Health named Warner Thomas as its new CEO in November 2022.
The case, known as Sidibe v. Sutter Health, had a complicated path. A jury initially ruled in favor of Sutter following a 2022 trial. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision last year, finding that critical evidence about Sutter's contracting history was improperly excluded at trial. A retrial was scheduled to begin this March before the settlement was finalized.
The $228.5 million settlement represents about 53% of the estimated damages, slightly higher than the 48% recovery awarded in a 2019 case where Sutter agreed to pay $575 million to resolve similar accusations brought by the California Attorney General, according to the settlement agreement. In that earlier case, the settlement also included a series of court-ordered reforms that remain in effect today, banning 'all-or-nothing' requirements and requiring greater transparency around Sutter's pricing and contract terms.
The joint statement from the parties emphasized that the settlement resolves 'strongly disputed claims' spanning conduct from the late 1990s to 2020. The settlement agreement noted there was no admission of liability by Sutter.
Constantine Cannon called the deal a 'hard-fought outcome' that concluded nearly 13 years of litigation.
According to the joint statement, the settlement still requires final approval by the court. A hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
Sutter Health operates 24 hospitals and numerous clinics across Northern California. It is the largest private company based in the Sacramento region, where it is based, and the region's second-largest private employer, after another health system, Kaiser Permanente.
In San Francisco, Sutter Health has a significant presence primarily through its California Pacific Medical Center network, which operates three acute care campuses in the city: Van Ness, Davies and Mission Bernal. Sutter Health also has several other locations in San Francisco, including outpatient centers, medical office buildings and care centers.
Bay Area Hospital Construction Projects
Construction cost
Rank Prior Rank Name
1
1
UCSF Health Helen Diller Hospital
2
2
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital
3
3
Stanford Medicine, Sutter Health Cancer Center View this list
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
3 hours ago
- Axios
Alzheimer's research at risk as diagnoses rise
More than 7 million American seniors now live with Alzheimer's disease — the highest number ever recorded, according to 2025 data shared in a new Alzheimer's Association report. Why it matters: As Alzheimer's diagnoses rise, the federal funding for medical research that's critical to preventing and treating it is at risk of being cut. State of play: Over 17,300 Californians die from Alzheimer's every year, but addressing cognitive decline early can help stave off the disease. That's especially important with San Diego County's growing senior population — about 16% of residents. Zoom in: The odds of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's is higher in San Diego than many other parts of the country, at least in part because of the local hospital system. That doesn't necessarily mean more people have the disease, but more thorough diagnosing can lead to more cases, better care, new tests and treatments. Between the lines: UC San Diego has the top NIH-funded neuroscience department in the country, and the university's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is developing potential treatments, monitoring drug safety and running clinical trials aimed at prevention. That federal funding is at risk of being pulled, which center director Jim Brewer has said would "absolutely cut the knees out" and could delay progress in addressing the disease, particularly through clinical trials. The latest: The FDA on Friday cleared the first blood test to help diagnose the disease, which could help with early detection. By the numbers: About 12% of Californians over 65 are living with Alzheimer's, per 2020 data in the report. That's almost 720,000 people. At 15%, Imperial County had the ninth-highest prevalence in the country. Zoom out: The highest rates of seniors with Alzheimer's are in D.C. (16.8%), Maryland (12.9%) and New York (12.7%), according to the association. Nearly two-thirds of all Americans diagnosed with the disease are women, per data cited in the report. UCSD researchers are currently trying to figure out why. Warning signs to watch for in high-risk age groups: Trouble finding the right word. Difficulty judging distances. Misplacing things and struggling to retrace steps. Be smart: Keeping your brain on its toes, so to speak, can help prevent dementia.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
He Fell Behind on His Taxes. So the Government Seized His Home, Sold It, and Kept the $258,000 Profit.
First the government seized Kenneth Michael Sikorsky's home and all of its equity over a tax debt worth far less than what it took. Now a federal court has ruled that Sikorsky has successfully stated a claim for a taking—an early sign that the legal landscape is shifting since the Supreme Court weighed in on these sorts of seizures two years ago. In 2012, the city of Newburgh, New York, foreclosed on Sikorsky's house after he fell behind on his property taxes. The parties were later able to broker an agreement that allowed him to repurchase the home for the price of his outstanding debt. But he was unable to satisfy those regular installments, prompting the city to cancel the sale. The government later found another buyer who could pay much more than the value of Sikorsky's debt, which with penalties, interest, and fees stood at $92,786.24. The sale went through in June 2021 for $350,500. The city then pocketed the profit: $257,713.76. Sikorsky is far from the first person to experience this nightmare scenario. But his case coincided with a petition that would upend the practice nationwide. Geraldine Tyler argued that the practice was unconstitutional after Hennepin County, Minnesota, seized her Minneapolis condo over a modest tax debt, sold it, and kept the profit. This worked its way through the court system until 2023, when the Supreme Court sided with Tyler. "A taxpayer who loses her $40,000 house to the State to fulfill a $15,000 tax debt has made a far greater contribution to the public fisc than she owed," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the unanimous Court. "The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but no more." The decision centered around the Takings Clause of the 5th Amendment, which says the government cannot take private property without providing "just compensation." So foreclosing on a property to collect a debt is constitutional, but pocketing the profit is not. Sikorsky's suit made it to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York shortly after that ruling. Sounds like perfect timing, yet the court ruled against him. But now the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that he can, in fact, sue for his equity under the Takings Clause, resuscitating his suit and sending it back to the district court for review. While the high court ruled the practice unconstitutional, several states—including Arizona, Alabama, New Jersey, and Sikorsky's home of New York—responded by passing labyrinthine debt collection statutes that seek to technically comply with the law while simultaneously making it difficult for property owners to collect their surplus equity. Michigander Chelsea Koetter, for example, lost her house in 2021 over a $3,863.40 tax debt. Manistee County, Michigan, then auctioned it off and kept the $102,636 profit. But the state's supreme court had already ruled the practice illegal in 2020—after which the Legislature approved a debt-collection law that sends owners on an obstacle course should they want to get their leftover equity back. Koetter, according to her complaint, submitted a form 8 days late, which the government said justified its decision to keep her six figures of equity. In Sikorsky's case, New York's new statute applies only to people whose properties were sold on or after May 25, 2023, so he will get to proceed under the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution instead. But future plaintiffs who lose everything after falling on hard times may find it much harder to recover their money. The post He Fell Behind on His Taxes. So the Government Seized His Home, Sold It, and Kept the $258,000 Profit. appeared first on
Miami Herald
20 hours ago
- Miami Herald
How the federal immigration raids could disrupt California's economy
President Trump promised a new "golden age" for America, but it's been anything but that for Los Angeles, with its dependence on trade and immigrant labor - two backbones of the region's economy. First, the president's tariffs cut deeply into traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and now his push to arrest undocumented immigrants at work sites, which has spurred massive protests after Trump deployed the National Guard, threatens a one-two punch to a region just starting its recovery from January's firestorms. "The reality is that the U.S. economy is largely today dependent upon foreign born labor - and in California more so," said Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank in Washington. "For the country as a whole, we're getting towards 1 out of 5 jobs being filled currently by somebody who was born abroad. In California, it's more like 1 in 3." The crackdown, depending on its scope and scale, could come at a price for industries across Los Angeles and California that have become increasingly dependent on immigrants, here legally or not, economists say. The surge in international migration in the last two decades - both by legal and undocumented workers - has been key to the growth of California's economy. A number of industries such as construction, leisure and hospitality, health care and agriculture rely heavily on immigrant workers. Foreign-born Californians account for one-third of all workers at restaurants and warehouses; about 40% in home healthcare and child day care; almost 50% at trucking and lodging businesses; and 60% at services for landscaping and cleaning buildings, according to a Times analysis of 2022 Census Bureau data. Some of the most obvious effects will hit the construction industry, given that the protests began after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeted a Home Depot in Paramount, where casual workers seek employment. Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, said the raids will scare off casual workers from congregating in public places, making it more difficult for small contractors to find employees. "This will be a big problem. The question is when does it start to hit," he said. "If you need workers and they aren't there, that really holds up your site. It's going to raise costs. In some cases, projects won't be undertaken. There will be projects they don't bid on." That will raise costs as labor becomes scarce, while undocumented workers might go "underground" where they are less easily detectable, he said. Another sector federal agents have targeted is downtown L.A.'s apparel industry, where some 15,000 workers were employed in 2023 in the Los Angeles Fashion District, designing, making and selling clothes, according a report by prepared for the Los Angeles Fashion District Business Improvement District. On Friday agents took workers into custody at a warehouse operated by Ambiance Apparel, a Los Angeles maker, importer and wholesaler of casual apparel for women and juniors. "You have a lot of garment factories where they're dependent on a lot of immigrant workers," Baker said. "And I'm sure many of those people aren't documented. If these crackdowns continue, you'll see some of those people deported. It's a safe bet that if they didn't have access to the immigrant labor, they'd be out of business." The raids also come at a time when immigration is helping fill a demand for workers as the overall U.S. population ages and baby boomers retire. That's especially true in California because it has been losing many residents to other states, including, more recently, wealthier and higher-income people. California's population, which shrank early in the pandemic, gained 232,570 people from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024. Immigrants accounted for 361,057 of those gains, making up for an outflow of 239,375 resident to other states, according to calculations by Brookings demographer William Frey. Eberstadt said the idea that unemployed native-born Americans will somehow pick up the labor slack was given a dry run during the post-pandemic boom in 2022, when there were 12 million open jobs, including 800,000 unfilled in manufacturing - despite the availability of more than 6 million men ages 25 to 54 who had dropped out of the labor force. "It didn't bring a lot of those men on the couch back into the labor force," he said. Surveys have indicated about half of those men say that they're using pain medication daily. Many spend their day watching screens, he said: "How much of that is health? How much of that is pain? How much of that is psychic pain? It would be great if we had more reportage on this." In the longer term, there also may be a paradoxical effects on wages, especially in California, Texas and Florida, according to a forthcoming research paper in the American Economic Review titled "Immigration, Innovation and Growth." If all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. were deported, after five years, California would see average annual wages decrease by $970, with Florida seeing a decrease of $560, according to the paper. Texas would see a decrease of $187, according to the paper. The theory is that the more productive people you have in an economy, the more it grows, said Tarek Hassan, a professor of economics at Boston University. With immigrants filling jobs, it frees up others to invent, create new patents and figure out ways to make the economy more efficient, which generates wealth. "Immigration in general is good for economic growth," said Hassan, who is a co-author of the paper. "This idea that immigrants take away Americans' jobs is not correct." Meanwhile, the local economy already has taken a hit from the on-and-off tariffs Trump announced in April, with the Port of Los Angeles processing 25% less cargo than forecast for May, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said in an interview. That has resulted in dwindling job opportunities at the port, which along with the neighboring Port of Long Beach - the largest port complex in the country - provide jobs for thousands of dockworkers, heavy equipment operators and truck drivers. Nearly half of the longshoremen who support operations at the Los Angeles port went without work over the last two weeks. Over the last 25 work shifts, only 733 jobs were available for 1,575 longshoremen looking for work, he said. "They haven't been laid off, but they're not working nearly as much as they did previously," Seroka told The Los Angeles Times. "Since the tariffs went into place, and in May specifically, we've really seen the work go off on the downside," Seroka said. The decline in shipping has ripple effects on L.A.'s economy. A 2023 report found that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach contributed $21.8 billion in direct revenue to local service providers, generating $2.7 billion in state and local taxes and creating 165,462 jobs, directly and indirectly. The slowdown in activity also has spread into surrounding communities. Businesses near the ports rely on a robust community of workers to frequent their establishments. "We're starting to hear from small businesses and restaurants in the harbor area that their customer patronage is trending downward," Seroka said. "Outside of COVID, this is the biggest drop I've seen in my career." Then there's the effect that deploying the National Guard and the turmoil it is having on the tourism industry, even though the disruptions have been limited to certain locales, said Jackie Filla, president of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles. "I'm hearing there have been just significant cancellations all across the city," Filla said, though she noted it's too soon to have hard data. "People are nervous to come to Los Angeles." International travelers also may be concerned about being detained, with Los Angeles clearly a target of the federal government for immigration enforcement actions, she said. And even if the immigration turmoil ends soon, the federal crackdown hurts L.A.'s brand as a tourist destination, which heavily leans on status as a global hub, with its diversity of cuisine, people and experiences, Filla said. "People rightfully have a lot of questions. They are calling hotels and wondering what the environment and atmosphere is like, and if they're going to be safe," she said. (Staff writers Suhauna Hussain and Caroline Petrow-Cohen contributed to this article.) Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
