The Illinois Supreme Court has denied a petition to review the recent decision of the Appellate Court of Third Circuit of Illinois to allow professional component billing by pathologists in the Martis v. Pekin Memorial Hospital case.

The lawsuit was filed by a patient on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, against Pekin Memorial Hospital, Data Management Inc., and Peoria-Tazewell Pathology Group, stemming from laboratory tests his physician ordered in 2004. One month after the tests were performed, the patient received a bill from the hospital for $609, and a bill from the pathologist group for $73.30.

Although the form authorizing treatment, which the patient signed and which the court found to be an express contract, explicitly included the services provided by pathologists, the plaintiff alleged defendants double-billed for their services. The case also claimed the pathologists were unjustly enriched.

Two lower courts have already ruled professional component billing is not actionable. The Illinois Supreme Court’s denial to hear the case brings this lawsuit to a conclusion.