Blue Cross Blue Shield Association plaintiffs

I'll research this entity to verify its profile.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a Chicago-based national federation of independent, locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans. Blue Cross traces to 1929 and Blue Shield to 1939; the two associations merged in 1982. BCBSA is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) social welfare organization — not publicly traded — governed by its member plans, with headquarters at 200 E. Randolph St., Chicago, and an office in Washington, D.C. Its FY2024 Form 990 reports roughly 1,393 employees, total revenue of about $862.7 million, and assets near $1.25 billion (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer; CauseIQ).

BCBSA's operations are largely franchise and program administration rather than underwriting. It owns and licenses the Blue Cross and Blue Shield trademarks and names to roughly 33–35 independent member plans operating in exclusive geographic service areas, setting brand and network standards. It also runs policy, advocacy, and research functions (e.g., The Health of America Report series), serves as carrier for the federal employee health benefits program (the "Service Benefit Plan" / Federal Employee Program), and sponsors affiliated ventures including the Blue Venture Funds and the GeoBlue international joint venture.

Litigation posture: BCBSA appears in the tracked data solely as a plaintiff (1 case, 0 as defendant) — but this is not patent-assertion activity. BCBSA is an operating organization and a purchaser of healthcare services, not an NPE or shell licensor; the single tracked matter is an antitrust action in which BCBSA is the complaining buyer. The venue, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, is not a plaintiff-friendly patent forum.

Notable case: Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association v. Celgene Corporation, et al., filed July 2020 in D.D.C. (1:20-cv-01980) and later docketed as No. 21-10187 in D.N.J., consolidated into In re Revlimid & Thalomid Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, No. 19-7532. BCBSA, in its capacity as carrier for the Federal Employee Program, alleged Sherman Act §2 monopolization and state antitrust violations, plus Walker Process fraud and sham-litigation theories aimed at Celgene's REMS patents and patent suits over Thalomid and Revlimid. The court dismissed the insurer plaintiffs' claims without prejudice on June 6, 2024.