Less than a week after filing an antitrust lawsuit against Florida Blue, Oscar Health filed a preliminary injunction against the Florida insurer on Monday, seeking to stop it from enforcing its exclusivity agreement with brokers.
According to Florida Blue’s policy, brokers who sign contracts with the company to sell its plans in the marketplace can’t work with other insurers. Oscar Health alleges that Florida Blue is trying to prevent Oscar from entering the Orlando market by this practice.
Oscar Health also alleges that Florida Blue has a 91 percent share of individual plans in the Orlando metro area and its exclusivity agreement with brokers is “monopolistic.”
Florida Blue has denied the allegations.
“The New York company that claims to be a startup has 1,600 agents in Florida, operates in nine states, has billions in venture capital funding from Google and others, and hired one of the most expensive law firms in the country to bring a complaint that has no merit,” wrote Christie Hyde DeNave, a spokeswoman for Florida Blue, in an email. “We are confident of our legal position, and we are confident about our ability to compete in the marketplace.”
On Nov. 13 Oscar filed a lawsuit in the federal court’s Middle District of Florida, alleging that Florida Blue, the largest provider of ACA plans in Florida, has launched a “targeted campaign” to prevent Oscar from entering Orlando by “coercing” brokers into “anticompetitive exclusive agreements” and preventing them from selling Oscar’s plans.
With four weeks left in the ACA open enrollment, Oscar wants to stop Florida Blue from enforcing its policy while waiting to go to trial.
More than 200 brokers had backed out of agreements to sell Oscar’s individual plans, resulting in loss of sales for Oscar, it said.
With the preliminary injunction, Oscar also filed affidavits from antitrust economist Mark Israel, two local brokers and Oscar employees familiar with the situation.
nmiller@orlandosentinel.com, 321-436-9205, Twitter; Instagram; Facebook; LinkedIn.
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