Michigan doctors want protection from the Blues

Two state medical societies are suing over allegations that the plan imposed a fee without physicians' consent.

By Robert Kazel, AMNews staff. Feb. 7, 2005.

Two Michigan medical associations are asking a state court to prevent Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from retaliating against doctors who refuse to accept changes in fee arrangements that would reduce reimbursements to physicians.

The groups say those changes were imposed without doctors' consent when three United Auto Workers insurance contracts were renegotiated last year.

The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed in Ingham County Circuit Court Jan. 11 by the Michigan State Medical Society, submitted jointly with the Michigan Osteopathic Assn. The court was to hold a hearing Feb. 2 on the preliminary injunction.

The request for an injunction is the most recent chapter in a lawsuit filed by the two medical societies in September 2004. The societies asked the court for a declaratory judgment that physicians are not obligated to go along with new, discounted fees set by the Blues and incorporated into UAW health insurance agreements with DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. That request is still pending before the court.

Under the new contracts, automaker employees, relatives and retirees were moved into new plans that the Blues called PPOs but which were not based on contracts between plan sponsors and the doctors' network.