Birmingham attorneys at a national health care law firm helped secure a $2.8 billion settlement for doctors and other providers suing Blue Cross Blue Shield in what the firm said is the largest settlement in a health care antitrust case.

Health care providers, including several in Alabama, accused the Blue Cross Blue Shield of using exclusive service areas and fixing prices it paid doctors to allocate markets in violation of federal antitrust law.

The settlement, announced Monday and secured by Whatley Kallas, was the culmination of 12 years of legal action and “nine years of painstaking, arm’s-length negotiations between the parties…,” the plaintiffs said in their motion asking a federal judge in Birmingham to approve the agreement.

Under the settlement, Blue Cross Blue Shield agrees to pay the providers $2.8 billion.

Also, the 33 independent Blue Cross Blue Shield entities will also change how they operate their membership plans, including how they process claims and communicate and pay providers.

Whatley Kallas Partner Joe Whatley with the firm’s Birmingham office and co-lead counsel on the antitrust case said the settlement “will benefit providers enormously.”

“The $2.8 billion cash payment, together with the hundreds of millions of dollars in additional investments the Blues are making to improve their systems, will benefit providers enormously,” he said in a statement. “We believe that the actual value to providers is much greater than the total payments.”

Whatley Kallas Partner Edith Kallas, who also served as co-lead counsel out of the firm’s New York Cityn office, celebrated the “historic outcome” of the case.

“Over the past 12 years we have dedicated an extraordinary amount of time, tireless effort and resources to this historic outcome for providers,” she said in a statement.

“Many important issues for providers are finally being addressed. We’re pleased that we have been able to achieve relief that will create a better system for healthcare providers and that will support the organizations and people we rely on to take care of us and our families every day.”