Blue Cross Threatens To End Coverage For Patients At Christian Hospital Group Over Blue Cross Logo

from the crossed-purposes dept

The last time we checked in with insurance giant Blue Cross / Blue Shield, the company was arguing that trademark law meant that researchers couldn't publish a study finding that BCBS doctors weren't always the best at handling patients in need of psychiatric care. As far as giant insurance companies go, it's a disappointing level of evil for the company to embrace. If you want to be the biggest name in insurance, you have to really get into some dastardly stuff. So come on, Blue Cross, what else have you got?

A giant insurance company is taking on a group of nuns and the nuns are fighting back. The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System (SCL), which runs hospitals and clinics in Kansas, Colorado and Montana, has used a logo including a cross since 1976. It tweaked its logo to add a bit of blue to it. Insurance behemoth Blue Cross then warned the Sisters of Charity to stop using the logo, threatening litigation and to stop its agreements with the nuns’ facilities, causing SCL patients to pay out of pocket or go elsewhere for healthcare.

Aaaahhh, much better! Yes, Blue Cross has decided to dictate to a group of Christian nuns just exactly how to depict a freaking cross. Apparently someone with a background in religious studies needs to head over to BCBS HQ and teach a quick lesson on where the nuns might have gotten their cross logo from (hint: it was a torture device from biblical times). And, just to make sure you understand exactly how dumb this is, here are both logos in question. Let me know if seeing these side by side confuses any of you.

Yeah, they're just not similar at all, never mind confusingly similar. So, after the threats from BCBS, the sisters from SCL Health decided to file suit, because this is America, damn it, and God will have his day in court.

Those threats caused the nuns to file suit against Blue Cross, stating that Blue Cross has been aware of the logo for almost 40 years and that the updated version has been acknowledged by Blue Cross to be “virtually identical” to its original logo, according to Emma Gannon of Courthouse News Service.

“Like thousands of other Christian-founded health and medical service providers, SCL Health has used the symbol of the cross to denote its Christian heritage and holistic approach to health care and spiritual well-being,” according to the suit. The Sisters of Charity are seeking declaratory judgment of non-infringement and non-dilution, and cancellation of Blue Cross trademark No. 554,817, which the Sisters say Blue Cross already has abandoned. They also seek the costs of the suit.

I suppose BCBS could continue fighting these nuns over the non-similar logo of a cross they've been using for several decades if it wants to, but I'd be afraid of taking a ruler to the back of the head if I were them. Probably best to just let these Christian nuns use a cross as a logo to provide healthcare to people, yes?

Filed Under: blue cross, nuns, trademark
Companies: blue cross, blue shield, leavenworth health system, sisters of charity