Gray

INTRODUCTION

After plaintiff Gordan Gray received emergency medical care at St. Mary Medical Center (owned and operated by defendant Dignity Health), he received a bill that included an “ ‘ER LEVEL 2 W/PROCEDU’ ” charge (ER Charge). Gray maintains Dignity’s failure to disclose, prior to providing emergency medical treatment, that its bill for emergency services would include such a charge—either by posting “signage in and around” the emergency department or “verbally during the patients’ registration process” —is an unfair business practice under the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and unlawful under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA). He seeks declaratory and injunctive relief requiring specific disclosure of this particular charge to all persons presenting at any Dignity-operated emergency department “in advance of providing treatment that would trigger” an ER Charge.

1 It is important to point out what Gray does not claim. He does not claim that by including an ER Charge in its billing, Dignity is in violation of any of the extensive state and federal statutory and regulatory law governing the disclosure of hospital billing information and the treatment of persons…