D.T. v. NECA/IBEW Family Medical Care Plan

District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided November 21, 2019·No. 2:17-cv-00004·Unknown

Opinion

1 The Honorable Richard A. Jones

6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 7 AT SEATTLE 8 D.T., by and through his parents and guardians, K.T. and W.T., individually, on behalf of 9 similarly situated individuals, and on behalf of NO. 2:17-cv-00004-RAJ 10 the NECA/IBEW Family Medical Care Plan,

11 Plaintiff,

12 v. ORDER ON PARTIES’ NECA/IBEW FAMILY MEDICAL CARE DISCOVERY MOTIONS 13 PLAN, THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF 14 THE NECA/IBEW FAMILY MEDICAL CARE PLAN, SALVATORE J. CHILIA, 15 ROBERT P. KLEIN, DARRELL L. MCCUBBINS, GEARY HIGGINS, 16 LAWRENCE J. MOTER, JR., KEVIN 17 TIGHE, JERRY SIMS, AND ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL MEMBER OF THE BOARD 18 OF TRUSTEES OF NECA/IBEW FAMILY MEDICAL CARE PLAN, 19 Defendants. 20 21 This matter comes before the Court on Non-Party Blue Cross Blue Shield 22 Healthcare Plan of Georgia, Inc.’s Motion to Quash Plaintiff’s Subpoena for a Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition (Dkt. # 62), Defendants’ Motion for a Protective Order Regarding 23 Plaintiff’s Subpoena Duces Tecum to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (Dkt. # 74), 24 and Defendants’ Motion for a Protective Order Regarding Plaintiff’s Subpoena for a 25 Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition (Dkt. # 73). 26 1 For the reasons that follow, BCBSGa’s Motion to Quash is GRANTED in part 2 and DENIED in part. Dkt. # 62. Defendants’ Motions for a Protective Order are 3 GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. Dkt. ## 73, 74. 4 I. BACKGROUND 5 The Court previously set forth the factual background of this case and will not 6 repeat it here. On July 31, 2019, Plaintiffs served a subpoena for 30(b)(6) testimony and 7 a subpoena duces tecum to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (“BCBSGa”) requesting 8 information regarding BCBSGa’s administration of the NECA/IBEW Family Medical 9 Care Plan (“FMCP”) claims system and the Developmental Delay Exclusion. See Dkt. # 10 67, Exs. A-B, Dkt. # 74, Ex. 5. On August 14, 2019, BCBSGa responded with 11 objections to the subpoena duces tecum and refused to produce any documents. Dkt. # 12 67-1, Ex. J. BCBSGa also refused to produce a witness. 13 The parties represent that they have met and conferred on multiple occasions and 14 were unable to reach an agreement. Dkt. # 67 at ¶ 7; Dkt. # 62 at 5. On August 22, 15 BCBSGa moved to quash the 30(b)(6) subpoena. Dkt. # 62. Defendants subsequently 16 moved for protective orders related to both BCBSGa subpoenas. Dkt. ## 73 and 74. 17 II. DISCUSSION 18 The Court has broad discretion to control discovery. Hallett v. Morgan, 296 F.3d 19 732, 751 (9th Cir. 2002); see also Avila v. Willits Envtl. Remediation Trust, 633 F.3d 20 828, 833 (9th Cir. 2011); In re Sealed Case, 856 F.2d 268, 271 (D.C. Cir. 1988). That 21 discretion is guided by several principles. Most importantly, the scope of discovery is 22 broad. A party must respond to any discovery request that is not privileged and that is 23 “relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case, 24 considering the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in 25 controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, 26 the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or 1 expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 2 26(b)(1). 3 A. BCBSGa’s Motion to Quash 4 Under Rule 45, any party may serve a subpoena commanding a nonparty “to 5 attend and testify” or to “produce designated documents.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 6 45(a)(1)(A)(iii). Any such subpoena is subject to the relevance requirements set forth in 7 Rule 26(b). See Moon v. SCP Pool Corp., 232 F.R.D. 633, 636–37 (C.D. Cal. 2005). If 8 requested, a court may quash or modify the subpoena for a variety of reasons, including 9 that the subpoena “subjects a person to undue burden.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(c)(3)(A). A 10 party objecting to a subpoena served on a non-party must move to quash. See Moon, at 11 636. The party who moves to quash a subpoena has the burden of persuasion. Id. at 12 637. 13 i. Topic 1 14 BCBSGa argues that Topic 1 is overly burdensome and seeks information that is 15 irrelevant or otherwise available in the Administrative Services Agreements between 16 FMCP and Anthem/BCBSGa. The Court disagrees. Topic 1 requests, among other 17 things, information regarding how the diagnosis codes for the Developmental Delay 18 Exclusion were selected including changes over time and communications between 19 Anthem and FMCP regarding the Developmental Delay Exclusion. The Court does not 20 find these requests irrelevant, duplicative, or overly burdensome. In discovery disputes 21 where relevance is in doubt, the Court should be permissive in allowing discovery. 22 Gonzales v. Google, Inc., 234 F.R.D. 674, 681 (N.D. Cal. 2006). Relevant information 23 need not be admissible at the trial if the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead 24 to the discovery of admissible evidence. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). 25 Central to Plaintiff’s case is FMCP’s Developmental Delay Exclusion. Here, 26 Plaintiff has provided evidence that Anthem/BCBSGa played a substantive role in 1 administering the Developmental Delay Exclusion under Anthem’s claims system. See 2 Dkt. # 67-1, Exs. Q, D, R. The fact that Plaintiff has already been provided with copies 3 of the agreements between BCBSGa and FMCP is not dispositive. Plaintiff still has the 4 right to ask BCBSGa about the agreements, communications BCBSGa may have had 5 with FMCP regarding the agreements and the Developmental Delay Exclusion, and 6 BCBSGa’s involvement in the administration of the Developmental Delay Exclusion. 7 Accordingly, BCBSGa’s Motion to Quash Topic 1 is DENIED. 8 ii. Topics 2 and 3 9 BCBSGa next argues that Topics 2 and 3 of the subpoena are overly broad and 10 unduly burdensome because they seek information related to the costs of providing 11 developmental delay coverage across BCBSGA’s entire “book of business.” Dkt. # 62 12 at 8-10. BCBSGa also argues that Topics 2 and 3 seek information that is not relevant to 13 Plaintiff’s claims. Id. 14 Plaintiff contends that he previously attempted to resolve the dispute related to the 15 scope of Topics 2 and 3 but was unsuccessful. Dkt. # 66 at 9. For example, after he 16 learned that Frontier Communications (Plaintiff’s father’s employer) was going to add 17 coverage for ABA therapy to all of its plans (except FMCP), Plaintiff claims that he 18 informed BCBSGa that any estimate provided to Frontier calculating the costs of adding 19 ABA therapy to Frontier’s self-funded plans administered by Anthem, would suffice. 20 Dkt. # 66 at 9 (citing Dkt. 67, Ex. E). According to Plaintiff, BCBSGa rejected this 21 proposal. Id. BCBSGa responds that Plaintiff “never offered to narrow the scope of 22 Topics 2 and 3 to cover only the ‘Frontier Communications Plan’” and that Plaintiff 23 instead suggested that BCBSGa provide the Frontier estimate and Plaintiff might then be 24 “willing” to narrow the scope of the subpoena. Dkt. # 69 at 5, fn. 4. 25 As an initial matter, the Court is increasingly disappointed in the lack of 26 cooperation between the parties. It appears clear to the Court that this dispute could 1 have been resolved, at least in part, without this Court’s intervention.

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