Note by Gail B. Agrawal
Blue Cross of Kansas City refused to enter into a "participating hospital" agreement with National Gerimedical Hospital and Gerontology Center. Based on the refusal, the hospital filed suit against Blue Cross of Kansas City and the Blue Cross Association alleging a wrongful refusal to deal and a conspiracy between the health systems agency and Blue Cross in violation of the Sherman Act. Blue Cross contended that its conduct was shielded from antitrust scrutiny by the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974, as amended, (National Health Planning Act), and by the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Granting summary judgment for Blue Cross, the trial court held that the conduct complained of was not the "business of insurance," as envisioned by the McCarran-Ferguson Act, and therefore not exempt under that Act, but that the conduct was protected by the National Health Planning Act which impliedly repealed the antitrust laws for all conduct within its scope. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed. In finding that the action taken by Blue Cross was not required by the National Health Planning Act, and that there was no clear repugnancy between the Act and the antitrust laws, the Supreme Court held that the National Health Planning Act created neither a specific repeal from antitrust laws for the conduct at issue, nor a blanket immunity for all private conduct undertaken pursuant to the Act. National Gerimedical Hospital and Gerontology Center v. Blue Cross of Kansas City and Blue Cross Association, 101 S. Ct. 2415 (1981).
About the Author
Gail B. Agrawal.
Citation
56 Tul. L. Rev. 749 (1982)