Benefits & Executive Comp

Hilary Swank Settles Suit Over Health Coverage for Ovarian Cysts

Aug. 9, 2021, 1:37 PM

• Details of settlement not public
• Ovarian cyst care wrongly coded as infertility related: suit

Two-time Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank settled her lawsuit claiming the health plan covering thousands of film and television actors wrongly refused to cover her ovarian cyst treatments, according to federal court papers filed in Los Angeles.

The parties on Aug. 6 submitted a joint notice of settlement to Judge John A. Kronstadt of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The notice didn’t include details about the settlement, and the parties didn’t respond to Bloomberg Law’s inquiries about the deal.

Swank’s lawsuit, filed in September 2020, brought claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act against the trustees of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists health plan. Swank, who’s won two Oscars for her roles in “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby,” says the trustees declined to cover her treatments for ovarian cysts by wrongly relying on a plan exclusion for “infertility treatment.”

Swank says she was diagnosed with malignant ovarian cysts in 2008 and later with endometriosis, two conditions that cause her pelvic pain, extreme acid reflux, cramping, fatigue, and other symptoms.

The treatments she sought coverage for were unrelated to any purported infertility care, and were instead done to prevent the risk of debilitating medical conditions that could result if she lost her sole remaining ovary after losing one in 2008, she says.

{snip}

To contact the reporter on this story: Jacklyn Wille in Washington at jwille@bloomberglaw.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rob Tricchinelli at rtricchinelli@bloomberglaw.com