From two insurers dropping legal challenges over Medi-Cal contract awards to Cigna suing over an executive's departure to a competitor, here are five lawsuits and settlements involving payers Becker's has reported since Jan. 4.
1. Cigna sued former executive Amy Bricker and CVS, alleging her departure to the rival violated a noncompete agreement.
2. A federal judge dismissed a claim against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from the Anesthesia Associates of Ann Arbor over an alleged decadeslong scheme to control the state's anesthesia market.
3. Blue Shield of California and Centene subsidiary Health Net dropped legal challenges over the state's Medicaid contract awards after California reversed course on a plan that could have forced two million Medi-Cal members to switch insurance.
4. A Florida judge recommended that lawyers who settled a class action lawsuit against Humana and healthcare analytics company Cotiviti receive a lower fee than they asked for. U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Sean Flynn found that an award of $300,000 — equal to 37.5 percent of the class's fund — was unreasonable given how quickly the case was settled.
5. A case filed by two former UnitedHealth executives who sued the company for allegedly underpaying them for a billion-dollar business line they helped create quietly closed. Few details about the case were publicized, and lawyers for both parties declined to comment on the outcome of the case.