UnitedHealthcare has made the headlines of pretty much every news outlet in recent weeks for a various number of reasons. One of these reasons includes a class action lawsuit taken out against the insurance provider amidst allegations of unauthorized telemarketing calls made to individuals who were not members of the insurance provider nor were they authorized third-party members.
UnitedHealthcare class action lawsuit breakdown
The insurance provider known as UnitedHealthcare is currently facing allegations of violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) through means of unsolicited calls made out to individuals against their will.
Class members for this suit who are eligible to make a claim are made up of individuals who were recipients of a non-emergency phone call from UnitedHealthcare between the dates of January 9, 2015 and January 9, 2019. The recipients of these phone calls also had no relation to UnitedHealthcare in the sense that they were not members of the health insurance provider, nor were they third-party members authorized by any active member of the company or its clients to receive calls on their behalf.
The lawsuit documents also state that UnitedHealthcare may have sent out eligible calls through its “Medicare and Retirement Non-Licensed Retention Team, Community and State National Retention Team or Medicare and Retirement Collections Team using either the Avaya Pro Contact or LiveVox IVR dialing systems.”
As such, this lawsuit is alleged that the health insurance provider is in direct violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act due to the placing of “unsolicited robocalls” to clients without the written consent of said individuals. According to the terms of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, companies are required to procure express written consent from consumers before subjecting them to robocalls.
Furthermore, class members who had received these robocalls have made the claim that, “they were not UnitedHealthcare members or authorized parties for a member and therefore had no reason to receive these calls.”
Settlement amounts and eligibility
In order to resolve these claims of violating the TCPA, the health insurance provider has reached a settlement agreement with plaintiffs of the amount of $2.5 million. UnitedHealthcare is not admitting to any wrongdoing in this case, however.
The terms of the settlement dictate that class members eligible to make a claim will each receive an equal share of the settlement amount once attorney fees and legal costs are deducted from the total amount. As a result, class members who file a claim will receive an amount ranging from $350 and $1,000. The exact payment amount will be determined once all claims are filed and the total number of claimants is known.
In order to be considered eligible for this class action suit, individuals must have received a non-emergency telephone call made using “the Avaya Pro Contact or LiveVox IVR dialing systems from the Medicare and Retirement Non-Licensed Retention Team, the Community and State National Retention Team or the Medicare and Retirement Collections Team to a cellular phone through the use of an artificial or prerecorded voice between Jan. 9, 2015, and Jan. 9, 2019.” Additionally, these individuals are not members subscribed to any UnitedHealthcare plans nor should they be third-party members who were authorized to receive the calls on behalf of someone else.
Important dates to look out for
According to Top Class Actions, the final deadline for exclusion and objection is April 15, 2025.
The final approval hearing for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare has been scheduled for June 20, 2025.
Lastly, class members should take note that the window to file a claim is currently open and will remain so until April 15, 2025.
Individuals who are eligible to make a claim can find the form to file a claim on the official class action website or alternatively, on the Top Class Actions page.