$2.7 billion tentative settlement in Blue Cross Blue Shield antitrust suit

The class-action antitrust case against all 36 Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers in the country, including Blue Cross of Idaho and Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, reached a tentative settlement of $2.7 billion on Sept. 24.

The settlement was agreed to by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, according to Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. The settlement now must be agreed to by each of the 36 members of the BCBS Association before it can be finalized by the U. S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, where the suit was originally filed in 2017.

According to the amended complaint filed in 2017, the suit states that the BCBS Association member companies conspired to limit competition and boost prices for policyholders in contravention to the Sherman Antitrust Act. The case was on behalf of more than 1 million individual and corporate policyholders, whose policies covered approximately 109 million Americans — more than a third of all the people in the country.

According to the amended complaint, Blue Cross of Idaho and Regence Blue Shield of Idaho cover nearly half of all medical policyholders in the state. The complaint stated explicitly that: “As the dominant insurers in Idaho, BC-ID and BS-ID have led the way in causing supra-competitive prices. As a result of these inflated premiums, as of 2010, BC-ID had more than $415.5 million in capital and surplus.”

The BCBS Association is handling all comment requests for its 36 member companies and told the Idaho Business Review: “We cannot comment on ongoing litigation, but can assure you that Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies will remain committed to improving the health of our members and our local communities.”