Lange Work Receives National Attention
DEHS litigator Bob Lange is among several South Dakota litigators receiving attention from a national legal organization for the defense of class action lawsuits against South Dakota’s largest health systems.
The October 17, 2007, issue of The Voice, a publication of the Defense Research Institute, carried an article about the South Dakota Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year upholding dismissal of the lawsuits. The lawsuits were brought separately against Sioux Valley Health System (now Sanford Health), Avera Health, and Rapid City Regional. The lawsuits claimed the hospitals breached implied contracts with uninsured patients by not charging them the reduced rates insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid had with the hospitals. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said the lawsuits did not state cognizable legal claims.
Lange, who represented Sioux Valley in the lawsuit against it, is one of the law firm’s commercial litigators. He is also head of the firm’s litigation section.