Home

The Blue Cross Blue and Blue Shield Association (BCBS) and the health plan subscribers who brought an antitrust challenge to its business model got preliminary approval from a federal judge in Alabama for a US$2.67 billion settlement, reported Bloomberg Law.

Judge R. David Proctor gave his tentative blessing to the agreement, which would resolve the subscribers’ claims in the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The suit accuses dozens of independent insurers affiliated with BCBS of illegally carving up the US health insurance market into regional “service areas” to avoid having to compete with one another.

The case had been brought on behalf of more than 1 million individual and corporate policyholders, whose policies covered tens of millions of Americans.

To Read More

Law360 (December 1, 2020, 4:57 PM EST) —

Citing “historic and substantial” structural reform terms

and a massive, $2.67 billion class damage award, a federal judge in Alabama granted preliminary approval late Monday to a settlement of claims that the nation’s Blue Cross plans conspired for years to thwart competition nationwide.

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor noted in his memorandum opinion that the agreement in the Northern District of Alabama includes one of the largest class payouts in history, in a case that alleged a long-running health insurance market-control conspiracy affecting tens of millions of insured members.

To Read More

Law360 (November 20, 2020, 10:37 PM EST) — An Eleventh Circuit panel during oral arguments Friday grilled Oscar Insurance, the U.S. Department of Justice and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida over the latter’s rules barring agents from selling insurance policies offered by other companies and whether the exclusivity requirement was protected from federal antitrust law.

Oscar is looking to revive its suit against Florida Blue, which a lower court tossed last year after finding the exclusivity policy is exempt from antitrust scrutiny by the McCarran-Ferguson Act, a federal statute that generally shields the business of insurance from federal antitrust enforcement.

The DOJ waded into the case both at the district court level and again with the Eleventh Circuit to urge against overly broad application of the statute.

To Read More

Law360 (November 16, 2020, 10:37 PM EST) — A federal judge in Alabama cautioned an attorney for non-consenting class members Monday about second-guessing “the tactical decisions of class counsel” in a proposed $2.67 billion multidistrict class settlement for alleged overpayments to Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurers.

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor made the point during a video-conference preliminary approval hearing in the Northern District of Alabama for the settlement of a suit filed in January 2013, targeting allegations that the insurers divvied up the nation and conspired to restrain competition among themselves and from other insurers, causing damages estimated at between $19 billion and $38 billion.

To Read More

Law360 (November 13, 2020, 6:52 PM EST) — Three insurance buyers say class members from their states were given a raw deal when the nation’s Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers inked a sweeping $2.67 billion settlement aimed at ending antitrust claims they had been battling for the better part of a decade.

The three class members, who hail from California, Texas and Minnesota, told an Alabama federal court on Thursday that they are concerned that, among other issues, the settlement signs away rights to state claims without seeking the blessing of the members who live in those states.

They also have unanswered questions about the estimated damages for California, Texas or Minnesota specifically, and how their individual states were accounted for in the settlement, according to their filing.

To Read More

By: Kris B. Mamula

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

David Holmberg, president and CEO of Highmark Health, received $8.14 million in total compensation in calendar 2019, up 8.6% from a year earlier, a new federal tax filing shows. 

Most of Mr. Holmberg’s compensation package was in bonus and incentive pay, which made up $6.03 million of the total, followed by $1.38 million in base pay; $677,276 in other compensation; and $18,413 in retirement and other deferred pay, according to a new Form 990 filing. The annual filing is required by the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt organizations.

Mr. Holmberg, 62, received $7.47 million in total compensation in 2018, according to filings.

To Read More

By: Kim McCullough

WALB News

Law360 (October 31, 2020, 5:34 PM EDT) — The nation’s Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers tentatively agreed late Friday to a $2.67 billion class settlement fund and sweeping anti-competitive practice reforms to settle a long-running multidistrict suit based in Alabama federal court that was filed by dozens of subscriber groups.

A memorandum in support of the deal filed by attorneys for subscribers in the Northern District of Alabama described the deal as “historic,” with far-reaching competitive benefits.

“The proposed settlement secures substantial injunctive relief that will reshape competition in the health insurance industry and offer increased choice to millions of Americans, coupled with one of the largest monetary recoveries ever achieved in an antitrust class action settlement,” the memorandum said.

To Read More

Law360 (October 22, 2020, 9:42 PM EDT) — A California appeals court has upheld Blue Shield of California‘s loss in its suit accusing a managed care organization of avoiding to pay for its most expensive patients by shifting them over to Blue Shield’s private coverage, costing the private insurer nearly $12 million.

The unanimous panel of the state Court of Appeal’s First Appellate District on Wednesday upheld a trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment to Santa Barbara San Luis Obispo Regional Health Authority, known as CenCal Health. California Physicians’ Service, which does business as Blue Shield of California, failed to meet an exception to the government tort immunity rule, the panel said.

To Read More