Illinois risk pools sue opioid makers, distributors

Two Illinois nonprofit risk pools filed suit in Cook County Court in Chicago on Monday charging dozens of opioids manufacturers, distributors and others with insurance fraud, unjust enrichment and other charges in connection with the drug epidemic.

The lawsuit was filed by Westchester, Illinois-based Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency and Oak Brook, Illinois-based Intergovernmental Personnel Benefit Cooperative, which together provide coverage to more than 203 local municipalities and other entities.

In addition to manufacturers and distributors, professional organizations and physicians are also named as defendants in the litigation.

The lawsuit, Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency and Intergovernmental Personnel Benefit Cooperative v. Purdue Pharma, LP et.al., which was filed by Chicago-based plaintiff firm Edelson P.C., states IRMA and IPBC member entities “are at the epicenter of the national opioid public health crisis.

“As providers of insurance-related services, IRMA and IPBC have had to shoulder substantial and unusual costs resulting from the far-reaching impact of the over-prescription and overuse of opioids,” states the lawsuit,

Both organizations “have expanded vast funds on hospitalizations due to overdose, addiction treatment services, and overdose reversal medications.

“IRMA has likewise paid out millions of dollars in employee disability benefits to injured workers who received long-term opioid prescriptions to treat chronic pain, a treatment which…has no scientific justification.”

The lawsuit says there “is a chain of indifferent profiteering carried out on both the demand side by the drug manufacturers (with help from front advocacy groups) and the supply side by the drug distributors and certain prescribers.”

Charges against the defendants include violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, fraudulent misrepresentation, insurance fraud, negligence, public nuisance, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment.

The lawsuit seeks damages, including punitive damages, against the defendants as well as interest.