Answer: No. We contact only Class Members who have submitted an inquiry to us. We do not make “unsolicited”—meaning you haven’t sent something to us first—calls or emails to Class Members. We do not use any sort of auto dialer or auto caller bots to communicate with Class Members. We never request a Class Member’s full SSN by telephone or by email.
We have received reports of phone and email spoofing in other settlement programs where scammers are seeking to defraud Class Members and lawyers. We want to make you aware of these scams so you can protect your personal information. Spoofing is a fraudulent or malicious practice in which communication is sent from an unknown source disguised as a source known to the receiver. An email, text or phone call appears to come from a trusted party, but the communication is truly from a cyber-predator intending to deceive an unsuspecting person. The scammers then request that claimants verify sensitive personal information, such as Social Security Numbers and Dates of Birth to confirm participation in the settlement.
If any Class Member or lawyer receives an unsolicited call from a person or entity acclaiming to be associated with Diet Drug Settlement Program, they should end the call or not return the call, in the case of a voicemail, and should not reply to or even forward any unsolicited email. Represented Class Members immediately should advise their counsel of the communication. Class Members can report unsolicited communications to us by emailing ClaimAdministrator@DietDrugSettlementProgram.com. Lastly, Class Members should be extremely cautious about the information they post online regarding the Settlement Program, their individual claims, and their own identities. Bad actors troll social media to learn tidbits about you, which they then use to make their contacts to you sound more legitimate.
Answer: Class Members diagnosed with mild or greater mitral or aortic regurgitation by July 3, 2003, the end of the Settlement’s medical screening program, were entitled to receive Matrix compensation benefits so long as they developed a Matrix level condition by a “Matrix Payment Cut-Off Date” of December 31, 2015. A Class Member who reached a Matrix-Level condition by this Cut-Off date and was paid on a Matrix Level below Level V is entitled to step up to higher Matrix-Level conditions and be paid the incremental dollar amount, if any, by which the Matrix payment for the higher Matrix-Level condition exceeded the Matrix payment previously received (“Eleventh Amendment Class Members”).
Answer: If a Diet Drug Recipient (or the Representative Claimant of Diet Drug Recipient) wishes to seek Incremental Matrix Compensation Benefits, a Green Form and supporting documentation must be completed and submitted to the Claim Administrator no later than four years from the date on which the Diet Drug Recipient was first diagnosed as having the Progression Matrix Level Condition upon which the claim is based. Compensation under the Matrices is not available for conditions that are first manifested after the Class Member reaches age 80.
There are two ways to submit your Green Form and supporting documentation to the Claim Administrator:
(a) Online: The quickest and easiest way to submit your claim is electronically through secure Portal access. If you do not have Portal access to manage claims, request access to an online Portal on the Log In page of the Program website. Follow the instructions on your Portal for starting a new Green Form and uploading supporting documentation on your Portal.
(b) By Mail: Access and print a Green Form from the Important Documents page of the Program website and use this address to submit your claim by mail:
Diet Drug Settlement Program P.O. Box 85006 Richmond, VA 23285
Answer: The Claim Administrator will make every effort to pay a Claim within 15 days after all the matters affecting payment are finalized, such as obtaining payment instructions and determining any fees and costs payable to counsel for a represented Class Member. But the biggest hurdle to getting a payment out is something beyond the control of the Parties or the Claim Administrator—the identification and resolution of any claim for reimbursement or lien by Medicare or other federal agencies (such as Veterans Affairs, TRICARE, or Indian Health Services) when the Class Member is eligible for those programs, or claims by state Medicaid agencies. Those can take months to finish, though in every instance the Claim Administrator will push to complete them as rapidly as possible and to pay as much of the Claim as possible while reserving some portion that may be needed to pay a lien (for example, California Medi-Cal is limited to recovering more than 50% of a settlement payment, which will permit the Claim Administrator to pay 50% of the Claim award and reserve the rest until Medi-Cal agrees to its satisfaction amount). Class Members who are not eligible for Medicare or other programs will not have this lien delay.
Answer: Under federal law, the Settlement Fund must determine from Medicare whether any payable Class Member is eligible for Medicare. The Claim Administrator will handle that step and the Settlement Fund will pay that cost. Then, if a payable Class Member is eligible for Medicare, the law requires that information about the Matrix payment be submitted to Medicare (through its Center for Medicare Services or “CMS”) for CMS to research whether Medicare paid for healthcare for any of the health conditions on which the Matrix payment is based. If it did not, CMS will issue a “no interest” letter regarding the Matrix payment and Medicare will not be paid anything out of the Matrix payment. If it did, then discussions with CMS must occur to pin down how much it will demand to be paid out of the Matrix payment to satisfy its reimbursement claim and issue its “final demand letter” stating that amount. A similar process must occur when the Class Member self-reports possible claims from other governmental benefit programs, such as state Medicaid. The Class Member may elect whether to handle all that claim resolution for themselves, in which case the Class Member will pay the cost to handle the reimbursement claims, or have the Claim Administrator do it, in which case the Settlement Fund will pay the cost of the work done by the Claim Administrator to compete the Healthcare Liens process.
Answer: Yes. Just ask the Claim Administrator and explain how much time you need and why. Remember, it will be in everyone’s interest to avoid delay and process claims as quickly as possible, as any extensions also delay payments. But because the goal here will be to make each Claim complete and decided on its merits, the Claim Administrator will be very flexible on these Claim completion deadlines and will work with the Class Member to complete the Claim. There are some deadlines in the Eleventh Amendment the Claim Administrator will have no authority to extend, such as the deadline for an Appeal to the Court, but the Claim Administrator will have discretion to allow more time when needed on the claim completion and review steps.