Hilary Swank Settles SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Lawsuit After Being Denied Coverage for Ovarian Cysts
Tommaso Boddi/FilmMagic Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank has settled her lawsuit against SAG-AFTRA Health Plan after being denied health coverage for treatment of ovarian cysts.
The two parties submitted a joint settlement agreement to resolve the matter earlier this month, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed.
In September 2020, the two-time Oscar winner, 46, filed the lawsuit against the board of trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan last September, claiming that she had been wrongly denied coverage for ongoing treatment of endometriosis and ovarian cysts.
Neither a rep for Swank nor a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA immediately responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.
In the lawsuit, Swank claimed that she received coverage for her treatment from 2008 to 2015, when the trustees "stopped allowing" her claims. The filing added that this happened around the same time Swank was "undergoing procedures to preserve her ability to conceive in the future."
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In a statement to PEOPLE at the time, the actress argued that the board of trustees had made a sexist decision in denying her treatment, saying that she was "truly exhausted by the way women's ovarian and cyclical health issues continue to be treated by healthcare insurance companies."
"I have experienced it in my own life, and I continually read about it across social media and in the press," Swank said. Their policies are antiquated, barbaric and primarily view the role of women's organs solely as a means for procreation."
"My hope is to create change for all women suffering from women's health issues that have to battle with insurance companies who diminish the significance of their problems, don't believe the patient (or their doctor's) explanations surrounding their suffering, and severely preclude coverage to only incredibly limited services and procedures."
She continued, "It's painful enough having to deal with the nature of a female health issue, let alone having to wrestle with the stress of trying to get your insurance company to provide the coverage and care that their contract explicitly states they offer."
"After years of experiencing my own health issues and the ensuing denials from my healthcare company for services that are medically proven to preserve my life, and seeing how expensive this is to support without the help of an insurance company, I decided to speak up. Based on what I learned, I know that most women can't afford the medical treatments necessary to cover simple female health issues. I can only assume they either financially deplete their resources, or they forgo the treatments, quietly suffering in pain and risking their lives."
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In a statement obtained by PEOPLE at the time, the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan said, "Contrary to the allegations in Ms. Swank's complaint, the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan does not exclude treatment for endometriosis and ovarian cysts under the Plan's infertility exclusion but rather covers diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis and ovarian cysts when medically necessary."
"As reflected in the complaint, the accredited Independent Review Organization (which is a completely separate entity from the Plan) reached the same conclusion as the Plan's Trustees that Ms. Swank's services were not medically necessary in this case," the statement continued. "The Health Plan Trustees care deeply about our participants' health and well-being as well as their privacy and therefore we are unable to comment beyond the statements that have been made public in Ms. Swank's complaint."
