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Fighting managed care and gaining an unprecedented award

Jury Trial

Caitlyn Chipps was a five-year-old  who suffered from cerebral palsy. Mark Chipps, a sheriff's officer in Palm Beach County, was a subscriber to his employer's group health insurance policy enlisted Humana as the HMO provider. The policy covered Chipps and his family. The Chipps family filed suit against Humana for denial of treatment and canceling their insurance (the company had terminated 100 or more policies involving seriously ill children).

Chipps struggle to protect his daughter's health care rights started in 1995 when the Chipps insurer, Humana, terminated Caitlyn Chipps from its Medical Case Management program without any justification and in complete violation of its own policies and procedures. Humana's actions left Caitlyn without desperately needed life sustaining therapies.

Humana estimated that by terminating the catastrophically ill children (like Caitlyn) from its Medical Case Management program it would save $78.48 million.

The case is one of the largest managed care verdicts in U.S. history. The verdict included compensatory damages for breach of contract, for promissory estoppel, violation of section 624.155 of Florida Statutes, fraud in the inducement of the policy, infliction of emotional distress, and punitive damages against Humana.

Humana appealed the jury verdict in the fall of 2001 and Florida's 4th District Court of Appeals overturned the jury's decision and remanded the case for a new trial on technical grounds and on damages only. The liability judgment was not disturbed.

Chipps v. Humana was a landmark case that awakened the nation to the outrageous and disingenuous conduct of managed care companies, particularly Humana. The case also laid the foundation for the National Managed Care Class Action Lawsuit that was litigated in Federal Court in Miami.

As a result of this case Attorney Edward M. Ricci's law firm was named as a finalist for the Consumer Justice Attorney of the Year Award presented by the Consumer Justice Attorneys for Public Justice. Ricci's firm was one of two finalists from Florida and was one of only eight finalists for the award, which has been presented annually since 1983 among thousands of cases tried or settled each year. Ricci's firm was nominated by Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen and former director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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