Hilary Swank has settled a lawsuit with SAG-AFTRA over her claim that the entertainers’ union’s health plan denied her coverage for treatment of her ovarian cysts.
Court documents obtained by Page Six indicate that the “Million Dollar Baby” actress and the board of trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan reached a written agreement last week that resolves the matter — and precludes further legal action. Further details on the settlement were not made public.
Reps for Swank and SAG-AFTRA Health Plan did not return Page Six’s request for comment.
Swank, 47, blasted the organization — and the health insurance industry at large in September, as “antiquated [and] barbaric” when she announced the lawsuit. She wrote that she was “truly exhausted by the way women’s ovarian and cyclical health issues continue to be treated by healthcare insurance companies.”
The “Boys Don’t Cry” star alleged that the trustees denied her claims for treatment of ovarian cysts in 2015, a diagnosis dating back to 2008 when her “left ovary was destroyed and removed during emergency surgery.”
SAG-AFTRA’s statement at the time claimed “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 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.”
At the root of the issue, Swank’s suit argued, was whether Swank was technically seeking “infertility treatment,” which is excluded by the SAG plan.
“This matter addresses the shockingly antiquated question of whether the sole purpose of a woman, specifically her ovaries, is to procreate,” her suit read.