In addition to analyzing claims and sending claim decision notice emails to those who have filed, Blue Cross Blue Shield recently completed their settlement with their customers.
With 33 autonomous, regionally run BCBSA firms, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is a US federation that offers health insurance to over 115 million people.
The plaintiffs’ claims that Blue Cross Blue Shield broke antitrust laws are the subject of the settlement.
The Blue Cross One-third of Americans receive healthcare from Blue Shield
One of the biggest healthcare providers in the US is Blue Cross Blue Shield. According to data from 2023, one in three Americans are covered by one of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s 33 separate firms.
Blue Cross Blue Shields are cooperatives that are owned and run locally. They also employ more than 150,000 people nationwide, making them one of the biggest employers in the country.
Americans continue to worry about healthcare coverage. Data from 2023 shows that slightly over 92% of the population is covered by health insurance, with private enterprises accounting for 65.4% of total coverage.
In addition to paying out $600 billion in health coverage claims, Blue Cross Blue Shield businesses have network arrangements with 1.7 million hospitals and doctors nationwide as of 2025.
A $2.67 billion lawsuit is settled by Blue Cross Blue Shield
In 2013, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Blue Cross Blue Shield, claiming that the business had violated antitrust laws. After seven years of litigation, a settlement with the plaintiffs was achieved in October 2020.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield settlement website states that a $2.67 billion Settlement Fund and Blue Cross Blue Shield’s commitment to alter their business practices to enhance competition in the health insurance market were both agreed upon as part of the settlement.
These claims had been refuted by Blue Cross Blue Shield. Blue Cross Blue Shield has not yet disclosed when it will begin disbursing payments, even though the deadline for submitting a claim has passed.
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People may anticipate receiving about $300 in compensation, since approximately six million people submitted claims. May 2022 was the cutoff date for objecting or opting out of a claim.
The second Blue Cross Blue Shield settlement
In addition to the 2020 settlement, Blue Shield Blue Cross has reached a settlement with hospitals and healthcare providers in a different class-action lawsuit.
The $2.8 billion settlement relates to a 2012 complaint that accused Blue Cross Blue Shield of driving down reimbursements and raising insurance premiums.
The Blue Cross Additionally, Blue Shield has refuted any allegations of misconduct related to this settlement.
You still have time to file objections if you oppose the settlement before the court renders a final approval decision. On July 16, 2025, a final fairness hearing is scheduled.
On March 5, however, dozens of hospital systems and healthcare providers filed separate lawsuits in federal courts in California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, alleging that Blue Cross Blue Shield and its affiliates underpaid them by billions of dollars.
This was bad news for Blue Cross Blue Shield because the hospitals and providers chose to pursue separate legal action rather than participate in the $2.8 billion class action settlement.
