Trigon's Failure to Respond is Admission of Conspiracy, Says ACA

On October 4, veteran attorney George McAndrews, counsel for the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), asked the federal court in Abingdon, Virgina to issue an order granting partial summary judgment on two central issues in its case against Trigon, et al. Mr. McAndrews asked the court to establish two fundamental allegations as facts:

1. Trigon and Blue Cross/Blue Shield BCBS conspired to use the BCBS marks to sell health care plans and services that wrongfully discriminate against doctors of chiropractic; and

2. All acts of Trigon to restrain access to doctors of chiropractic from a person covered by Trigon health care plans were approved and aided by the national BCBS.

Mr. McAndrews argued that well-established federal case law and the applicable rules of court required Trigon to deny, admit or state insufficient information to deny or admit any allegations.

Trigon, however, failed to deny these allegations in its answer to the federal court.

The ACA took Trigon to task for failing to respond to allegations of conspiracy and discrimination against doctors of chiropractic. Mr. McAndrews told the federal court in a motion that Trigon's failure to respond to the allegations effectively serves as an admission of guilt.

Trigon's attorneys responded that ACA's motion was "another 'time-waster' because it entirely lacks merit," and that it was "based on deceptive conduct by the plaintiffs." Trigon maintained further that no response was required for the conspiracy allegations because ACA had dismissed without prejudice its case against the national BCBS.

ACA argued that the voluntary dismissal without prejudice of the case against the national association has no bearing on the repeated allegations in ACA's lawsuit of conspiracy between the national group and Trigon to discriminate against DCs.

Mr. McAndrews said the ACA is following proper pleading procedures. "Ignoring the issue of conspiracy because the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is no longer a party (to the lawsuit) is like ignoring the actions of the Taliban if Osama Bin Laden is no longer alive."

Trigon asked the court to sanction the ACA attorneys for filing the motions and accused ACA attorneys of "deception." Trigon claimed that ACA attorneys intentionally "misled" the court by not disclosing that the ACA would continue to consider the national BCBS as a conspirator with Trigon, despite the voluntary dismissal of the national BCBS from the lawsuit.

The Trigon attorneys stated: "Even more troubling than plaintiffs' conscious disregard of Trigon's unambiguous denials of the conspiracy allegations is the fact that they have deceived both the court and Trigon concerning their intentions to pursue the claim that Trigon and the national BCBS had allegedly conspired. Plaintiffs' deception had the effect of causing Trigon to state in its answer that no further response was required to the particular allegations."

"ACA intends to aggressively pursue the Trigon litigation to get at the heart of the wrongful discrimination against doctors of chiropractic (that is) plaguing so many Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans," commented Daryl Wills,DC, ACA president.