Blue Cross Affiliate Takes Supplier Defamation Suit to SCOTUS

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana asked the U.S. Supreme Court to make it easier for health plans to block lawsuits from doctors seeking payment.

The insurer, formally known as Louisiana Health Service & Indemnity Co., wants the justices to consider a Fifth Circuit opinion in favor of a medical equipment and staffing company that sued the insurer for failing to pay benefits and defamation. The Fifth Circuit’s opinion wrongly disregarded a term in Blue Cross’s health plans blocking plan participants from assigning their right to sue to medical providers, the insurer said.

Specifically, the Fifth Circuit said Blue ...