Most states do not allow medical monitoring lawsuits, but PM USA, a unit of Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group, Inc., noted that it won two similar trials in Louisiana and West Virginia in the early 2000s. The company said most federal and state courts have rejected class action suits, including those seeking medical monitoring for plaintiffs, because the “claims raise issues unique to each individual smoker.”
The Boston case was unusual because the plaintiffs currently have no symptoms of lung cancer and were seeking medical monitoring programs, not damages. If the jury had found that PM USA made a defective product and backed the claim that LDCT scans were an effective way to monitor for cancer, the judge would have heard a second phase of the trial about medical monitoring, according to Bloomberg.
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Boston magazine noted that when the judge had ruled the case could go forward in 2010 many health insurance plans did not cover the scans the plaintiffs were seeking. But more plans, including Medicare, have now begun to offer coverage of them, the magazine stated.
Meanwhile, more court proceedings are expected in Boston, where the judge is expected to decide whether there was a violation of Massachusetts’ Consumer Protection Act, according to PM USA.
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