Provider Plaintiffs filed a Renewed Motion for Class Certification in in MDL 2406 in Re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation.
Click to view the Motion: Provider Pltfs’ Renewed Mtn for Class Cert and Supp Memo
Blue Cross Blue Shield AntiTrust Litigation | Latest News surrounding Insurance Antitrust Litigation | Page 2
Latest News surrounding Insurance Antitrust Litigation
Provider Plaintiffs File Renewed Motion for Class Certification in MDL 2406 in re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation
Court Enters Seventh Amended Scheduling Order for Provider Track in MDL 2406: IN RE: Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation
The Honorable R. David Proctor of the Northern District of Alabama issued the Seventh Amended Scheduling Order for the Provider Tack in MDL 2406 in Re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation.
Click to view the Order: 7th Amended Scheduling Order
Blue Health Insurers Reach Tentative Antitrust Settlement for $2.7 Billion
Agreement, if finalized, could increase competition among Blue Cross Blue Shield group members including Anthem, Health Care Service Corp
By: Anna Wilde Mathews and Brent Kendall
Wall Street Journal
The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance group has negotiated a tentative settlement in a sweeping antitrust suit filed on behalf of customers, according to people with knowledge of the matter, in a deal that would require a payout of around $2.7 billion and curtail practices that allegedly limited competition among its three dozen member-companies.
The settlement isn’t final, according to these people. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has signed off on the agreement, but it hasn’t been approved by the boards of all 36 Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers. Among the major Blue Cross Blue Shield companies are Anthem Inc. ANTM +0.58% and Health Care Service Corp.
The settlement has yet to receive approval from U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor, in Birmingham, Ala., who is presiding over the case. That process can be lengthy, and any settlement would be implemented only after the judge signs off on it.
Memorial Healthcare tells Florida Blue customers to look for new insurer
South Florida Sun Sentinel
9/14/2020
Memorial Healthcare System is telling its patients with Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance to find another insurer if they want to remain in southern Broward County’s largest hospital network.
Negotiations on a new contract that would have enabled patients insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, also known as Florida Blue, to continue using Memorial hospital facilities at in-network rates failed before the previous contract expired Aug. 31.
MarinHealth and Anthem Blue Cross clash over contract terms
Marin Independent Journal
9/6/2020
MarinHealth Medical Center will terminate its contract with Anthem Blue Cross if it can’t reach agreement on new contract terms with the insurer by Sept. 15.
If the contract lapses, patients who are insured by Anthem Blue Cross might have to pay higher out-of-network rates if they have procedures performed at Marinhealth Medical Center.
For example, Dr. Peter Eisenberg, founder of Marin Cancer Care, said that normally his practice relies on MarinHealth for laboratory tests, imaging and radiation therapy. Eisenberg said if the contract is terminated, he will look to Novato Community Hospital to provide the lab tests and imaging for patients who are insured by Anthem.
“Novato Community Hospital is relatively convenient,” Eisenberg said.
However, he said he would have to send Anthem patients out of the county for radiation therapy, because there are no alternatives in Marin.
Cigna, Anthem Can’t Get Damages Over Failed $54B Merger
Law360 (August 31, 2020, 10:51 AM EDT) — Neither Cigna Corp. nor Anthem Inc. can recover on claims for billions in damages after the 
collapse of their proposed $54 billion merger in 2017, a Delaware vice chancellor concluded Monday in a 311-page opinion on the multiyear, multicourt saga.
Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, who oversaw a 10-day trial in late February and early March 2019, found that a federal antitrust injunction in 2017 triggered a failure of a deal-killing, no-injunction provision, eliminating obligations to close on either side.
“Although Anthem proved that Cigna breached the [merger] efforts covenants, Anthem failed to prove that Cigna’s breaches led to causally related damages,” the vice chancellor wrote, noting that Cigna’s opposition to the deal grew so obvious that a federal judge referred to it as “the elephant in the courtroom” during antitrust proceedings.
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Record profits for Anthem, other health insurers, raise hackles
Many health insurers are reporting second-quarter earnings double what they were a year ago, as Americans are putting off expensive surgeries and even routine office visits during the pandemic.
Rural Hospitals Are Sinking Under COVID-19 Financial Pressures
NPR
8/22/20
Jerome Antone says he is one of the lucky ones.
After becoming ill with COVID-19, Antone was hospitalized only 65 miles away from his small Alabama town. He is the mayor of Georgiana — population 1,700.
“It hit our rural community so rabid,” Antone says. The town’s hospital closed last year. If hospitals in nearby communities don’t have beds available, “you may have to go four or five hours away.”
As COVID-19 continues to spread, an increasing number of rural communities in the U.S. find themselves without their hospital or on the brink of losing already cash-strapped facilities.
Eighteen rural hospitals closed last year and the first three months of 2020 were “really big months,” says Mark Holmes, director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Many of the losses are in Southern states, including Florida and Texas, he says, and more than 170 rural hospitals have closed nationwide since 2005, according to data collected by the Sheps Center.
Blue Shield of California Makes Huge Profits
Blue Shield of CA, where I once worked, is reaping HUGE profits from the pandemic.
In the first half of this year it made $1 billion, more than 3 times its 2019 ANNUAL profit.
Unlike other insurers, it has returned none of its pandemic profits to customers w/ premium credits. pic.twitter.com/AbvszTqomD
— Michael Johnson (@MJohnsoninLA) August 17, 2020
US health insurers doubled profits in second quarter amid pandemic
US’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, reported $6.7bn in profits compared with $3.4bn for the same quarter last year.
The enormous medical response in America to the coronavirus pandemic has not put a drain on US health insurers, which doubled profits in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same time last year.
The US fight against the virus has been marked by overwhelmed hospitals, testing delays and personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, but the high profits reported by some insurers have underlined concerns about America’s for-profit healthcare model.