U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Review $6 Million Fraud Judgment Against BCBSM; Other Cases May Now Move Forward
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not review a $6
million judgment against Michigan's largest health insurer, Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Michigan, in the case of Hi-Lex Controls, Inc. v. Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. The decision concludes three years of
litigation over the legality of Blue Cross's hidden fees. The Hi-Lex
matter is the first of nearly fifty cases filed by Varnum over the
fraudulent fees. With the nation's highest court refusing to review the
case, all appeals are exhausted and the way is now clear for the
remaining cases to move forward.
The ruling confirms last year's judgment by a federal court in Detroit,
which found that BCBSM collected millions of dollars in hidden fees
over a nearly 20-year period from the employee health plan for Hi-Lex
Controls, Inc. and Hi-Lex America, Inc. Varnum attorneys representing
Hi-Lex showed that BCBSM marked up employee hospital claims by as much
as 22 percent and kept the markup. Reports provided to Hi-Lex did not
disclose the hidden fees. Internal company e-mails showed that BCBSM's
managers knew customers were unaware of the markups, and that employees
were trained to "downplay" the hidden fees if any customers discovered
them
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