Blue Cross Affiliate Loses Appeal in Supplier Defamation Suit

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana lost its appeals of decisions favoring a medical equipment company that said the insurer wrongly denied coverage and sent a defamatory letter to area doctors.

Encompass Office Solutions Inc., a medical equipment and staffing company serving doctors who perform in-office surgeries, didn’t wait too long to sue Blue Cross for defamation and tortious interference with business relations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held.

Encompass knew in 2010 about Blue Cross’s allegedly defamatory letter, but it didn’t discover until later that the letter contained allegedly false statements, the court said March ...