MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MedQuist Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDQ), a leading provider of medical transcription services, is pleased to announce entry of final judgment approving settlement and dismissing the consolidated medical transcriptionist class action commenced against the Company following disclosure of the results of the internal review of its historic billing practices in July 2004. MedQuist cares deeply about its workforce, and throughout this litigation the Company maintained that it has always correctly paid its medical transcriptionists, that it did nothing wrong, and that the allegations in the suit were completely meritless. The Court's action this week vindicates the Company's position: '[N]otwithstanding Plaintiffs' expansive discovery and investigative work, no evidence emerged to support their allegations that MedQuist had systematically underpaid its transcriptionists.' The full text of the Court's Final Judgment and Opinion are available through the Company's Web site at www.MedQuist.com.
As originally reported by MedQuist in December 2004 and October 2005, certain individual medical transcriptionists commenced class action litigation against the Company alleging that MedQuist systematically and wrongfully underpaid medical transcriptionists. After it became clear that Plaintiffs could not prove the claims alleged against MedQuist, the parties reached a settlement, whereby MedQuist agreed to an injunction requiring it to implement certain measures to ensure transparency in medical transcription pay. MedQuist hopes that as a recognized leader in the medical transcription field, its agreement to increase transparency will pave the way for similar measures throughout the industry.
As part of the settlement, the Company also agreed to pay $1.5 million, approximately $1.1 million of which will be given to the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) to fund programs for the general benefit of medical transcriptionists and the medical transcription industry. The balance of the settlement funds will be paid to cover settlement administration costs and Plaintiffs' counsel's out-of-pocket expenses. Because there was no evidence to support Plaintiffs' allegations that transcriptionists were systematically underpaid, the settlement approved by the Court does not include any payment to the named Plaintiffs or the settlement class members, nor does the settlement include any payment for Plaintiffs' attorneys' fees. However, as part of the settlement, AHDI agreed to offer certain programs free of charge to class members as outlined in the settlement documentation.
