BCBS IL Association Class Action Update
Please Note: as of August 9, 2022, The Court has granted final approval of Settlement for this case. If you’d like to check the status of your claim, please refer to the claim website here.
Blue Cross Blue Shield was part of a class action settlement in a case that could mean that customers are eligible for payments from the class action lawsuit. Read on for specific details on who would qualify for a payment, the application protocol, and the timeline for payments. File a claim directly through the BCBS website here.
Anybody that was insured under a fully insured group plan or an Under 65 individual major medical plan (not Med Supplement) for the period of 2/7/2008-10/16/2019 is in the eligible class. For self-funded accounts, the eligible period 9/1/2015-10/16/2020. Anyone that was insured at any point during that time (you need not be a current member) is eligible. The settlement fund administrator has started to send out notifications to both employers and employees of fully insured and individuals under 65 major medical policyholders about the BCBSIL Association Class Action Update. You might have or might not have gotten contacted yet.
The protocol currently being followed by BCBS contacting folks is:
If you elected the “email option” as the “preferred mode” of communication with BCBS, you should be receiving the notifications via email.
If you elected the mail option the settlement administrator is simultaneously sending postcards.
BOTH “classes” are entitled to claim.
It is important to know that you do not need to be contacted by BCBS and can instead immediately put in your claim. Fill out your claim.
What does being entitled to a claim mean?
If an employer claims their settlement rights the assumption is that the employer was making some contribution towards their group plan premiums. In the claim form, there are numerous fields to help the administrator make sure they are getting the maximum amount they are entitled to.
Our professional opinion would be that this could be a great deal of work for a limited return on investment for the amount of time required to locate and upload all optional fields. Instead, if you are an employer intending to claim, we suggest that you fill out the form with as much information that you have readily available and accept the default option versus taking all the time to dig up and enter all the information for an unquantifiable/unknown gain.
After the employer claims are filed then individual claims can be filed. There is no way to speculate how much you will receive once calculations are made. In the claim filing process, the administrator has numerous ways to select from how you want to receive your payment. We think that payments will come late 2022 either way.
What is our recommendation?
We think filing a claim with the default options is the best route to go! If you elect to provide only the required fields and agree to accept the default calculations the process will take less than 10 minutes albeit limit your claim payout. To start the process filing a claim, click here.
