Pomerantz Monitor, November/December 2013
In Pennsylvania Chiropractic Ass’n v. Blue Cross Blue Shield Ass’n, Pomerantz’s Insurance Practice Group obtained summary judgment on behalf of our client health providers against Anthem and Independent Blue Cross in a recoupment case. Recoupment itself has been described as a “legal gray zone” that insurers exploited prior to Pomerantz’s challenges. Recoupment occurs when insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield (“BCBS”) pay claims initially and later decide that the claims should not have been paid, demanding repayment and claiming fraud. When the provider refuses to return the money, the insurer deducts the full amount from payment of future claims that are not challenged as improper.
When these subsequent denials are made in the context of an employee health insurance plan, they are controlled by ERISA, which requires disclosure and appellate rights. In its decision, the court found that Blue Cross insurers violated ERISA by improperly denying beneficiary rights and making arbitrary and capricious benefit denials. The court also denied BCBS’s motion for summary judgment against several chiropractic associations, also represented by Pomerantz, for injunctive relief. This ruling paved the way for a December trial to modify the way Blue Cross obtains benefit recoupments from chiropractors across the country.
This decision has national significance. As we stated to Law 360, an online legal publication: “The decision found for us on the merits of our claim that an insurer must comply with ERISA when seeking to recover previously paid health care benefits from providers. Given the hundreds of millions of dollars recouped by insurers every year, this decision will have widespread implications.”
The decision follows Pomerantz’s successful trial verdict on behalf of other providers in another recoupment and fraud case in the District of Rhode Island, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of R.I. v. Korsen, and our win in yet another recoupment case in the Third Circuit in Tri3 Enterprises, LLC v. Aetna, Inc. We have other recoupment cases ongoing, the results of which we will report in future editions of the Monitor.