In 2024, a settlement was reached in a long-running class action lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) brought by physicians, hospitals, large health systems and provider organizations. The lawsuit alleged a range of antitrust violations by BCBS, including price fixing and allocating markets using exclusive service areas. In addition to $2.8 billion in damages, the Settlement Agreement requires BCBS to make hundreds of millions of dollars in investments to improve claims processing, including the processing of BlueCard claims.
Physicians, medical groups and health care facilities may be eligible to submit a claim as part of the settlement reached with the BCBS system if they provided health care services, equipment or supplies to Blue Plan patients between July 24, 2008, and October 4, 2024.
Whatley Kallas, LLP will host a series of webinars for medical providers on how to submit claims. A session for health care facilities will be held Friday, January 10 at 12:00pm ET, and a session for medical groups and professionals will be held Thursday, January 16 at 12:00pm ET.
Log-in information for both virtual sessions is available here.
The claims period is open and runs until July 29, 2025. Joe Whatley and Edith Kallas were co-lead counsel for providers in the case. Mr. Whatley and Ms. Kallas have a long history of championing physicians’ rights against insurers, having served as lead counsel in the multi-district litigation that established the Physicians Advocacy Institute in a settlement with broad relief for physicians