The ruling on Thursday by U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor in Birmingham allows the claims from health professionals, hospitals and other providers to move forward.
A separate class in the case made up of insurance subscribers, including companies and individuals, settled related claims for $2.7 billion in 2020.
Experts for the Alabama plaintiffs have estimated that a prospective class of hospitals in the state suffered more than $5 billion in damages, court filings show. They would need to establish that Blue Cross Blue Shield Association violated antitrust law before winning any monetary judgment.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association declined to comment. The organization has denied any wrongdoing.
A lead lawyer for the providers, Joe Whatley Jr, said on Friday that Blue Cross Blue Shield defendants “have lost a Hail Mary — their only hope of avoiding a trial.”
The damages ruling resolved one of several pending disputes on key legal questions remaining in the case. No trial date has been set.
A ruling against the plaintiffs on damages would have “drastically” limited their claims, lawyers for Blue Cross Blue Shield told Proctor last month.
Dozens of subscriber and provider cases were centralized in Alabama a decade ago as part of a multidistrict litigation proceeding.
The plaintiffs have asked Proctor to certify classes of acute-care hospitals in Alabama and other plaintiffs in the state, whose claims are part of a nationwide class action in 2012.
Proctor previously said Alabama plaintiffs would proceed first. Whatley said the ruling could be applied more broadly to all providers.
Attorneys for Blue Cross Blue Shield said the providers’ damages were speculative and the allegations were lodged too late. They said the providers were “brazenly” seeking billions of dollars.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys last month said there was “no realistic prospect of a settlement.”
The case is In re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, No. 2:13-cv-20000-RDP.
For provider plaintiffs: Joe Whatley Jr and Edith Kallas of Whatley Kallas
For Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: Karin DeMasi and Evan Chesler of Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Read more:
$2.7 bln Blue Cross antitrust settlement upheld by US appeals court
Ford Motor Co sues Blue Cross Blue Shield in antitrust case over ‘astronomical’ profit
Class lawyers defend $667 mln fee award in insurance antitrust case
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