HARRISBURG, Pa., April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society (POS) today declared its intention to join the battle currently being waged by two Philadelphia-area orthopaedic surgeons against Independence Blue Cross (IBC). POS seeks class action status for its members in a lawsuit which alleges that IBC maintains a pattern of denying and reducing payments to  orthopedists. Representing more than 800 orthopaedic surgeons in Pennsylvania, POS has instructed its attorneys to file papers asking Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Albert W. Sheppard, Jr. to permit POS to intervene on behalf of its members in the case
known as Gregg v. Independence Blue Cross.

The Gregg case was brought by two Philadelphia-area orthopaedic surgeons, Drs. John R. Gregg and Vincent J. DiStefano, who allege that IBC has "engaged in a pattern and/or practice of improperly denying reimbursement or improperly reducing the amount of reimbursement'' owed to them and other orthopaedic surgeons for medical care they have rendered.

Specifically, the doctors allege that IBC improperly and unilaterally changed the billing codes submitted with the doctors' requests for reimbursement to codes that provide for a lower reimbursement rate, a practice known as "downcoding.'' The doctors further allege that IBC engages in a practice known as "bundling,'' which involves the failure to fully reimburse the doctors when two or more distinct procedures are performed.

"The Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society's entry into the case signifies our determination to end IBC's practice of denying our members reimbursement for the medical care they provide to IBC's insureds,'' said POS President Jeffrey A. Baum, MD.

POS will join with Drs. Gregg and DiStefano in asking the court to permanently bar IBC from continuing these practices in the future and to order IBC to open up its records for inspection so that the extent of its violations of the orthopaedic surgeons' contractual rights can be fully ascertained.

The lawyers representing POS, Jerome M. Marcus and Jonathan Auerbach of the law firm of Berger & Montague, P.C. and David S. Senoff of the law firm of Senoff & Griffith, LLP, represent doctors and patients in cases throughout the United States who contend that their rights have been violated by the health insurance industry.