High Court Passes on Chiropractor Suit

The U.S. Supreme Court said it would not consider whether health insurers violate antitrust laws when they team up with doctors to adopt reimbursement policies that siphon business from chiropractors.

At issue was whether Trigon Healthcare Inc., Virginia’s largest private health insurer, illegally conspired to develop clinical guidelines that unfairly promoted doctors over chiropractors.

The Supreme Court had been asked by chiropractic groups to consider whether Trigon’s advisory panel, made up of mostly medical doctors who developed the policies, represented an unlawful collusion between doctors and the health insurer.