A graduate of the Harvard School of Law, Solomon has been representing hospitals, medical groups, doctors, laboratories and other health care providers for 20 years.
His firm, Hooper, Lundy & Bookman Inc., has just negotiated a landmark 11.8 million dollar settlement in a class action suit on behalf of California Hospitals. Solomon successfully argued Blue Cross, and its parent company Wellpoint Inc., claiming it had unfairly rescinded hundreds and hundreds of patient health policies, leaving the hospitals with stacks of unpaid bills.
As Solomon puts it, "The only party the hospitals can be paid by is the patient. The patient doesn't usually have the resources to pay, that's why they buy insurance from Blue Cross in the first place."
The case began in May 2006. "There were a lot of arms length negotiations that lead to the settlement, and frankly good facts," Solomon says. "It was the right thing for Blue Cross to settle and pay under these circumstances."
The firm has been focusing on health care provider issues for the last two decades. Solomon describes Hooper, Lundy & Bookman Inc. as a "full service firm for the health care industry."
Solomon believes that patients and health care providers have converging interests. "In the past, there were patient class actions that didn't result in the providers getting paid. That's where the convergence occurs. Health care insurance, more than any other kind of insurance exists solely for the patient to pay the health care provider for the care that the patient needs."
"If the hospital gets paid," Solomon argues, "then the hospital no longer goes after the patient."
It's his view that the health care industry is gaining rapidly and will only get larger in the future. He believes technological innovation in terms of record keeping would help the health industry tremendously. "A lot of record keeping is still happening by hand," says Solomon.
Glenn E. Solomon graduated from Harvard Law School (cum laude) in 1991 and did his undergrad degree at Berkeley (1988) with a major in political economies. He joined Hooper, Lundy & Bookman in 1998. The firm has offices in San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.