Blue Cross Michigan Escapes Long-Running Tribal Health Plan Suit

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan defeated a long-running lawsuit over its handling of health plans associated with an American Indian tribe, when a federal judge ruled the case was filed too late.

Discovery in the nine-year-old lawsuit has shown that the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan understood Blue Cross wasn’t negotiating certain medical provider discounts as early as 2008, making the tribe’s 2016 lawsuit untimely under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Judge Thomas L. Ludington of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan said Monday.

Testimony from the clerk running the tribal health program ...