On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered Cincinnati to pay $141,000 in attorney bills that have accumulated over years while retired city workers fight over health care benefits, including the removal of erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs – Viagra and Cialis – from prescription coverage.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Barrett signed an order, giving the city a month’s time to pay legal bills to several local firms representing retirees.
Peter O’Shea, the retired workers’ lawyer, wrote, “As the court knows well, the years since the agreement was executed have seen a steady flow of disputes, motion practice, meetings and negotiations as the parties have worked to address new and old issues under the agreement and avoid all-out litigation.”
In June 2019, retired workers filed a motion to stop the city from removing ED drugs from their health care benefits, a move that would save Cincinnati around $425,000 per year. In 2018, they lost this coverage.
However, Cincinnati continued to cover ED drugs as part of a medical condition, such as benign enlarged prostate (BEP) but ended coverage of lifestyle or recreational use of those drugs.
The city’s then-attorney, Steve Goodin, wrote in 2019, “Not every drug which seeks to address the admittedly unpleasant effects of the aging process is, in the strictest sense, ‘medically necessary’ and subject to full insurance coverage.”
“The City does not expect class counsel to work for free; it does, however, have a fiduciary obligation to the Cincinnati Retirement System and a general moral obligation to be a good steward of its members’ funds,” Goodin wrote in a December 2019 court filing.
The city’s then-manager Patrick Duhaney wrote to City Council, “The Cincinnati Retirement System was expected to spend an estimated $34 million on retiree health benefits in 2019 and coverage for prescription drugs accounts for half of that.”
“This trend is expected to increase at alarming rates due to escalating costs for brand-name drugs, new and specialty drugs coming to market at ever-higher prices, and increased utilization,” he added.
Goodin wrote, “The city added numerous new drugs to its health plan, including ones which cure Hepatitis C and dramatically improve the life expectancy for certain cancer diagnoses, and it did so without court approval.”
Lawyers for the retirees have also been fighting for access to city documents as they investigate changes to health insurance. To read more, visit WCPO, a Cincinnati-based news outlet.
