Los Angeles Superior Court To Hear Case Against Discount Card Company Care Entree

Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday was scheduled to hear a lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles family against Care Entree, which markets health care discount cards, seeking to bar the company from doing business in the state, the Los Angeles Times reports.

According to the Times, the Zermenos family sued Texas-based Care Entree after health care providers said they would not accept the Care Entree health care card for which the Zermenos family had signed up. Care Entree settled with the Zermenos for $25,000 without admitting any wrongdoing.

In another lawsuit, the family, with the help of Neighborhood Legal Services, is seeking to bar Care Entree from conducting business in California.

According to the Times, the Zermenos' suit "is part of a growing list of complaints against discount health care card companies," which have about 21 million subscribers throughout the United States, including about five million in California.

The Department of Managed Health Care, which began investigating the discount health care card industry in 2004, said that most of the 100 companies that sell the cards are "not legitimate."

Care Entree already was the target of a deceptive-trade-practices suit filed by Texas earlier this year, a case Care Entree said was without merit (Liu, Los Angeles Times, 6/23).