A Columbia woman is seeking $5 million in damages in a civil lawsuit she has filed against a health-care company that she claims is denying her access to the doctors she needs.
Claudia Robertson claims in a Howard Circuit Court suit that Columbia Medical Plan Inc. and its parent company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland Inc., violated their contract to provide her with health care.
But Columbia Medical and Blue Cross-Blue Shield say in papers filed earlier this month that they had no choice but to transfer Ms. Robertson to another health-care site.
They assert that medical-malpractice allegations by Ms. Robertson over a 1991 incident so harmed her relationship with doctors that they no longer could treat her.
"As a direct result of these false accusations, [Ms. Robertson] killed the relationship of confidence and trust that must exist between physicians and their patients," Columbia Medical attorney James Groves said in a Dec. 6 court filing.
But John London Clark Jr., a Columbia attorney for Ms. Robertson, asserted that Columbia Medical agreed to continue treating his client after the 1991 dispute was settled.
Mr. Clark said none of the plan's doctors was involved in the dispute. Ms. Robertson "specifically spoke to each of her doctors," he said. "She never blamed them for anything."
Officials at Columbia Medical and Blue Cross-Blue Shield declined to comment on the suit, relying upon documents the companies filed in court.
The suit, filed Oct. 7, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Jan. 23.
Ms. Robertson's trouble with Columbia Medical started in May 1991, when she was "severely" injured by a nurse, according to her suit.
Court papers filed by the defense say Ms. Robertson, of the 7800 block of Weather Worn Way in Kings Contrivance Village, claimed she suffered an allergic reaction that caused her skin to peel and become discolored after a nurse gave her medication containing sulfur.
Columbia Medical paid $60,000 to Ms. Robertson to resolve the dispute in November 1991, but did not accept any blame for the incident, documents say.
With the dispute resolved, Ms. Robertson said, she went to Columbia Medical for a scheduled visit on Jan. 2, 1992.
That appointment, as well as several others in the next two months, had been canceled.
The appointment was rescheduled, but Ms. Robertson said she later learned that Columbia Medical canceled her coverage as of February 1992.
Mr. Groves, Columbia Medical's attorney, said in court papers that doctors and their staff worried about talking with Ms. Robertson for fear of another malpractice claim.
included letters with Columbia Medical's court filings that showed that the company asked Ms. Robertson to go to other Blue Cross-Blue Shield sites for medical treatment. The letters included names and addresses of sites in Columbia and Ellicott City.
The company "ultimately had no choice but to refuse [Ms. Robertson's] treatment because she flatly refused to stop coming in, time and
time again, on the advice of her counsel!" Mr. Groves asserted. "And the obvious reason was that Ms. Robertson sought to concoct another malpractice incident against the defendants and collect another settlement."
Ms. Robertson, who retired on disability from her job as a Baltimore teacher in 1986, said she now uses private physicians, paid by Medicare, because she can't use Columbia Medical coverage.
But Ms. Robertson, 49, said she wants health-care services through Columbia Medical because the company's doctors are familiar with her ailments, including the effects of a brain aneurysm and numerous allergies.
"She just wants to have access to medical treatment," Mr. Clark said. "This lady needs to see these doctors."