Clinics Not Covered for COVID-19 Losses Under ‘Interruption by Communicable Disease’ Provision, Va. Federal Judge Rules

DANVILLE, W. Va. — A Virginia federal judge has ruled that two medical clinics cannot recover COVID-19-related losses under their policy’s “Interruption by Communicable Disease” (ICD) provision, because government orders that suspended elective medical procedures did not prohibit access to the clinics.

In a Nov. 14 order, Judge Thomas T. Cullen of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia explained that the orders limited medical procedures to make room for medical emergencies and did not declare the clinics themselves “uninhabitable.”

Danville Regional Medical Center LLC (DRMC) and Clinch Valley Medical Center Inc., which operate medical centers …