BATON ROUGE – Lane Regional Medical Center in Zachary, LA, filed suit against all of the Blue Cross Blue Shield entities outside of Louisiana on Friday, August 7, 2015, to force them to compete with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana.
The suit alleges as the nation’s largest health insurance companies continue to merge, often with only one major provider servicing each state, patients have fewer choices when shopping for insurance.
Lane Regional Medical Center anticipates that their case will be joined with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation, In re: Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litig., MDL 2406, No. 2:13-cv-20000-RDP (N.D. Ala.), where health care providers and subscribers are challenging the refusal of the Blues (Blue Cross Blue Shield entities) to compete with each other.
The lawsuit frames the Blues as two of the largest four health insurance companies in the country, and 15 of the largest 25.
With the announced merger between Cigna and the largest of the Blues, Anthem, the suit proposes it is imperative that health care providers like Lane Regional Medical Center stand up to require health insurance companies start competing with one other.
Read the complaint here.
