Anthem filed a lawsuit March 7 against a former highly compensated president, alleging he stole trade secrets and breached agreements related to his restricted stock.
The case was filed in the Southern District of Indiana against Chad Piper, the former president of Anthem's Healthy Blue Nebraska Medicaid Program. In his role, Mr. Piper reportedly had access to the health plan's strategic, fiscal, regulatory and operational information.
In the lawsuit, Anthem claims that Mr. Piper received three different restricted stock grants that had agreements tied to them. In exchange for the restricted stock, Mr. Piper agreed to restrictions on using Anthem's confidential information, competing with Anthem and soliciting Anthem's customers or employees.
Anthem alleges that after Mr. Piper resigned from the company in November 2021, he joined a competitor that was submitting a bid for Iowa's Medicaid program. Anthem was also submitting a bid to obtain the Iowa Medicaid contract, which is worth billions of dollars. Anthem also said Mr. Piper forwarded several confidential documents to himself for personal access.
Mr. Piper "flagrantly violated his restrictive covenant obligations to obtain an unfair advantage over Anthem in a bid for a contract worth billions of dollars," Anthem said in the lawsuit. "Absent immediate injunctive relief, Anthem faces the prospect of a competitor armed with its confidential bid strategy, weaknesses and operational performance metrics."
Anthem is asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction preventing Mr. Piper from being involved in the Iowa bid for his new company. The insurer is also asking the court to find that he violated the stock agreements, order him to return the confidential information and award compensatory damages.