U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, of the Southern District of Florida, is hearing a consolidation of class action lawsuits from around the country that could have a major impact on how insurers pay health care providers and how they describe their plans to subscribers.

The Federal Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation selected Moreno, a 1978 graduate of UM Law, last November to handle a massive collection of class action suits, in which various patients and physicians filed lawsuits against some of the largest health care providers in the country. All of the cases from around the country have been consolidated into two cases in Miami, one on behalf of the patients and one on behalf of the physicians.

The named defendants in the case are some of the largest health care providers in the country, including Humana, Aetna, Cigna, United Health Care, Prudential, Foundation Health Systems, Pacificare Health Systems, Wellpoint Health Network, and Coventry Corp.

The class of subscribers may number more than 80 million, and the doctors class may include as many as 600,000 doctors. Class action status for both categories has been argued but is currently pending.

Both plaintiffs and defendants are represented by some of the best known lawyers from around the country. These include many UM Law alumni, such as Harley Tropin, JD '77, who is one of the two co-lead lawyers for all of the doctors; Dean Colson, JD '77, who is one of the liaison counsels for both classes, and Adam Moskowitz, JD '93, a partner with Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton.

"One enjoyable aspect of this case is that many of the very good lawyers on both sides of the fence are UM Law grads," Tropin commented. "For instance, some the defendants' lawyers include Michael Nachwalter, JD '67, Ronald Ravikoff, JD '77, and Hillary Bass, JD '81, all of whom I have been litigating with for many years.

Moreno is no stranger to large class action cases. In 1995, he handled one of the largest class actions brought to Florida, approving after three years a $160 million settlement for investors in a Ponzi scheme case against Premium Sales Corp.