On May 1, 2015, inmates of the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MDOC) suffering from hepatitis-C filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. The plaintiffs sued the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Centene Corporation, a provider of healthcare for inmates, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Article I § 8 of the Minnesota Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The plaintiffs, represented by private counsel, sought declaratory judgment, injunctive and equitable relief, and compensatory and punitive damages. The plaintiffs claimed that defendants violated the 5th, 8th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Article I §§ 2, 5, and 7 of the Minnesota Constitution, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Specifically, they claimed that defendants refused to provide them with hepatitis-C drugs that met accepted medical standards. They claimed that defendants subjected them to less effective and more dangerous 48-week Interferon treatments for non-medical reasons that constituted “deliberate interference” to their serious medical needs.

Prior to late 2013, hepatitis-C treatment consisted of 48-week Interferon injections. Interferon was not highly effective and caused serious side effects. In January, 2014, the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and Association for the Study of Infectious Disease recognized the potential of a new 12-week treatment regimen consisting of a daily pill with a 95% cure rate. The Federal Bureau of Prisons and other federal agencies recognized the new drug as the standard of care by June 2014, and the FDA approved sales under multiple labels by the end of 2014.

On June 3rd, 2015, plaintiffs filed their first amended complaint, adjusting the language of some of their claims and correcting the name of Centene Corporation to Centurion of Minnesota, LLC. Plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint on October 29, 2015, which removed plaintiffs’ claims based on the Fifth Amendment and the Minnesota Constitution. The second amended complaint also included voluminous medical reports on hepatitis-C.

On February 23, 2016, Judge Patrick J. Schiltz dismissed all claims against one of plaintiffs’ treating physicians based on a joint stipulation by the parties. In addition, the plaintiffs reached a confidential settlement with Centurion and another of plaintiffs’ physicians, the existence of which was entered in the record on October 5, 2016.

Litigation involving the remaining defendants dragged on for the next year; defendants moved for summary judgment, and plaintiffs moved for class certification, a preliminary injunction, and partial summary judgment. On October 4, 2017, Judge Schiltz rejected these and other pending motions. Judge Schiltz did, however, grant plaintiff’s motion to file a third amended complaint and “encourage[d]” plaintiffs to drop all claims except for those under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Plaintiffs responded on December 1, 2017, with a drastic revision of their complaint. The third amended complaint added new named plaintiffs, removed unknown agents of the Minnesota Department of Corrections as defendants, and alleged violations of only the Eighth Amendment and the ADA. After unfruitful court-initiated settlement negotiations, plaintiffs moved to certify a class, and defendants moved for summary judgment. These motions were taken under advisement, and a trial was scheduled for February 2019.

The court granted in part and denied in part the defendants' motion for summary judgment and granted the plaintiffs' motion to certify class on January 3, 2019. The opinion was filed under seal because of its discussion of the plaintiffs’ medical conditions and is not available. Of the plaintiffs' claims that were dismissed, all but one were dismissed without prejudice. Judge Schlitz certified the class as “all current and future inmates of Minnesota correctional
facilities who have been diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C and have not
received treatment with a direct‐acting antiviral medication.” On March 3, the plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion to approve a class action settlement of the remaining claims. Judge Schiltz approved this settlement on June 24, 2019 and entered judgment that same day.

The settlement had two main requirements: 1) the defendant must amend their 2018 Guidelines on the testing and treatment of HCV to comply with factors outlined in the settlement and; 2) the defendant must update policy to include education of prisoners with HCV who are released from MDOC facilities. The settlement was set to last for 24 months and required the MDOC to submit quarterly reports on their compliance. The court retained jurisdiction until the later of July 25, 2021 or two years after any appeals from the approval of the settlement were resolved. The defendants agreed to pay $325,000 in attorneys’ fees and $41,144 in costs.

Because the court retained jurisdiction over the settlement, this case is ongoing for monitoring purposes.

Maria Ricaurte - 10/04/2015
Mary Kate Sickel - 03/26/2018
Timothy Leake - 10/31/2018
Alex Moody - 04/10/2020


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