Concentra sues to stop name airing on Limbaugh
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky-based health care company has sued to protect its name after being involuntarily drawn into the backlash over Rush Limbaugh's derisive comments about a Georgetown law student...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky-based health care company has sued to protect its name after being involuntarily drawn into the backlash over Rush Limbaugh’s derisive comments about a Georgetown law student.
Louisville-based Humana, the parent company of Concentra Health Services, filed on Thursday for a preliminary injunction to stop the Preval Group of Portland, Maine from using the name Concentra to market memory aid pills.
Humana said in court filings it received angry phone calls, emails and web postings after an ad for Concentra pills aired on Limbaugh’s show Monday. Concentra Health and the Preval Group are not related.
Limbaugh has been criticized for attacking student Sandra Fluke over contraception. He apologized but has lost some advertisers in the backlash.
A message left for the Preval Group Thursday was not immediately returned.
Concentra Health Services, based in Addison, Texas, runs more than 320 medical centers in 40 states offering occupational medicine, urgent care, primary care and physical therapy. The Preval Group is a marketing company that sells the memory pills.
The dispute came to a head on Monday, when the Preval Group aired an ad for the memory pill on Limbaugh’s radio show. Humana doesn’t advertise on the radio show, but officials say the Preval Group’s ad has resulted in people contacting the health care company and criticizing it for supporting Limbaugh’s show.
Concentra Health Services Vice President for Marketing Nancy Buttyan said in an affidavit that the company has been subject to “universally negative” posts and Twitter comments about the ad. Buttyan also said she’s responded to 30-40 emails from the public, including a Kentucky customer who said “I will stop using your services.”
Concentra has posted a link to a statement on its website labeled “Not On Rush.”
“We are not affiliated with this company or this product in any way. We apologize for any confusion created by this event, but assure you that this advertising is not from our company,” the company said on the website.
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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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