The November 1, 2022 American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Section Medicine & Law Committee November Learning Session will focus on the details and likely implications of the groundbreaking August 8, 2022 settlement of the long-running In Re Blue Cross And Blue Shield Litigation on the commercial health insurance market and the health care provider contracting, payment and other relations by Blue Cross Blue Shueld Association and its member insurers.

The August 8, 2022 settlement requires the Association and its members to make substantial changes in longstanding market and business practices that have helped the Association and its member insurance organizations establish and protect their market dominance from external and internal competition, and use that market dominance in its contracting and other dealings with health care providers.

After nine years of litigation challenging the provider contracting and business contracting rules and practices of the Association as anticompetitive, the reforms by the Association and its member insurance organizations agreed upon in the settlement agreement are expected to foster freer market competition of insurance products and services to customers, and provide health care providers greater strength when dealing with the Association and its members on provider contracting and claims.  Meanwhile, the more than nine years of litigation leading up to the settlement produced several significant procedural and substantive rulings likely to shape future antitrust litigation.

During Tuesday’s Committee Learning Session, Medicine & Law Committee Chair-Elect Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, Managing Shareholder, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, P.C. will share a brief overview and selected resources about the litigation and settlement, before leading a discussion among call participants of their thoughts about the significance and implications of these developments on the marketplace and future antitrust litigation and enforcement.

For more information about the Learning Session or other opportunities for involvement with the Medicine & Law Committee, e-mail Chair Elect Cynthia Marcotte Stamer or see the Medicine & Law Committee webpage.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2022 at 6:47 PM and is filed under Corporate Compliance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.