While too many of us get overdosed with clownish depictions - from doctors, hospitals, insurers, and corporations, especially Big Pharma firms - of how the civil justice system operates, it’s always worth a reminder of the...more
The year 2020 was an eventful one in the world of healthcare antitrust. The year began with the announcement of the precedent-setting settlement of the California Attorney General’s action against Sutter Health and ended with...more
Compliance Today (December 2020) - The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance group has negotiated a possible settlement to sweeping antitrust lawsuits that alleged the group benefited from anticompetitive measures that...more
In a long-running antitrust case, the Eleventh Circuit recently denied defendant Blue Cross Blue Shield’s interlocutory appeal of the district court’s ruling that certain allegedly restrictive practices of defendants must be...more
The Third Circuit reinstated an antitrust suit brought by a medical device seller that alleged Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and five of its member insurance plan administrators shut out the seller by conspiring to deny...more
We wrote before about a decision by an Alabama federal district court to analyze claims in the Blue Cross Blue Shield multi-district litigation under a per se standard. ...more
In a somewhat unexpected but highly significant move, United States District Judge David Procter (Northern District of Alabama), who is presiding over the In re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation (Case No....more
In what was a surprise result, on April 23, Judge William Smith (Chief Judge of the District of Rhode Island) reversed the “tentative” decision he had announced last November, in Stewart Health v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of...more
Since 2013, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has faced a series of purported class actions consolidated in the U.S. District Court in Alabama. In a recent decision focused upon the appropriate standard of review, the...more
A court’s decision regarding the proper standard of review in a Sherman Act Section 1 case—whether to analyze the defendant’s conduct as a per se antitrust violation or under the “rule of reason”—is highly significant. The...more
On April 5, United States District Judge David Proctor (N.D. Alabama) granted partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs in the In re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation, ruling that a network of trademark licensing...more
As the trend of acquisitions of physician practices and mergers of hospitals continues, so does antitrust scrutiny of these deals. There was activity this week in three different proposed transactions that caught the...more
After fending off a motion for judgment on the pleadings in March 2015, a small hospital in Peoria, Illinois lost on summary judgment in its $300 million antitrust suit alleging illegal exclusive dealing and attempted...more
It was recently reported that Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), along with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, was sued across all states in a class action brought by two types of plaintiffs. One plaintiff class reflects...more
In This Issue: - COURT DENIES BLUES’ MOTION TO DISMISS IN RE BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD ANTITRUST LITIGATION (MDL 2406): On June 18, United States District Court Judge David Proctor (Northern District of Alabama)...more
In This Issue: - FTC COMMISSIONER CRITICIZES PROPOSED LEGISLATION THAT WOULD PERMIT HEALTH PROVIDERS TO NEGOTIATE JOINTLY WITH HEALTH INSURERS: In a February 26 speech before the Connecticut Bar Association,...more
In This Issue: - CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT HOLDS INSURERS ARE SUBJECT TO UNFAIR COMPETITION CLAIMS IN ZHANG CASE: On August 1, the California Supreme Court issued its highly-anticipated decision in Zhang v....more