Title: Blue Cross and Blue Shield v. Nielsen
Citation: 714 So. 2d 293
Docket Number: 1961757
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 17, 1998

714 So. 2d 293 (1998)
BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF ALABAMA, INC.
v.
John O. NIELSEN, D.M.D.
1961757.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 17, 1998.
*294 Cavender C. Kimble and Leigh Anne Hodge of Balch &amp; Bingham, L.L.P., Birmingham, for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Inc.
William M. Slaughter and Richard H. Walston of Haskell, Slaughter &amp; Young, L.L.C., Birmingham, for John O. Neilsen, D.M.D.
Bill Pryor, atty gen.; Jeffery H. Long, asst. atty. gen.; and Michael A. Bownes, general counsel, Department of Insurance, for amicus curiae Office of the Attorney General.
MADDOX, Justice.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has certified to this Court questions regarding the interpretation of Alabama laws regulating companies that offer health care benefits and regarding whether certain laws designed to protect a patient's right to select his or her doctor, dentist, or pharmacist apply to a company like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Inc. ("Blue Cross"), which is organized under the provisions of a specific state statute. The specific questions certified are as follows:
The facts, as provided by the Court of Appeals, are as follows (the Court of Appeals certification to this Court is published; see Blue Cross &amp; Blue Shield of Alabama, Inc., 116 F.3d 1406,1408-09 (11th Cir.1997)):
1"Section 10-4-100 [1994 repl. vol.] provides:
"`Any nonstock corporations organized not for profit for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and operating a health care service plan under which health services are furnished to such of the public who become subscribers to such plan pursuant to contracts are authorized and shall be governed by the provisions of this article.'
2"Blue Cross informed the Court of this fact at oral argument.
3"In July 1996, the United States Census Bureau estimated Alabama's population at 4,273,084. See U.S. Bureau of the Census, Estimates of the Population of States: Annual Time Series, July 1, 1990 to July 1, 1996 (released December 30, 1996)...."
Blue Cross &amp; Blue Shield of Alabama v. Nielsen, 116 F.3d 1406, 1408-09 (11th Cir. 1997).
The first question presented could be restated as follows: Did the Legislature, when it adopted acts permitting patients to choose their medical-services providers, intend to exempt Blue Cross from the coverage of those acts? We conclude that Blue Cross is exempted, by the provisions of §§ 10-4-115 and 27-1-4, Ala.Code 1975, from the coverage of what the Court of Appeals has referred to as the Alabama Provider Acts. Section 10-4-115 (1994 repl. vol.), provides:
Section 27-1-4, Ala.Code 1975 (1986 repl. vol.), a portion of Title 27 (which constitutes the "Alabama Insurance Code" and in which the Alabama Provider Acts appear), states:
To decide whether § 10-4-115 and § 27-1-4 exempt Blue Cross from the Alabama Provider Acts, we must examine the legislative intent behind these statutes. In discussing statutory construction this Court has stated:
Ex parte Holladay, 466 So. 2d 956, 960 (Ala. 1985). In IMED Corp. v. Systems Engineering Assocs. Corp., 602 So. 2d 344, 346 (Ala. 1992), this Court further stated with regard to statutory construction:
Based upon our reading of these two Code provisions, and applying the principles of statutory construction heretofore adopted by this Court, we conclude that the language of § 10-4-115 plainly and unambiguously states that corporations formed under § 10-4-110 et seq., as Blue Cross was, are not regulated by the insurance laws of this State unless § 10-4-110 et seq. are expressly amended to apply such laws. This interpretation is also supported by the wording of § 27-1-4, which *297 expressly states that laws appearing in the Alabama Insurance Code (Title 27) do not apply to companies, like Blue Cross, that are organized under the provisions of § 10-4-100, unless § 10-4-100 et seq. expressly provide that such laws apply.
It is a familiar principle of statutory interpretation that the Legislature, in enacting new legislation, is presumed to know the existing law. See Ex parte Louisville &amp; N.R.R., 398 So. 2d 291, 296 (Ala.1981). Applying that principle to this case, we can presume that if the Legislature had intended for § 27-1-19 and §§ 27-19A-1 to -11, and §§ 27-45-1 to -9 to apply to companies like Blue Cross, it could have eliminated any question by expressly amending § 10-4-100 et seq. to specify that those statutes would, in fact, apply. Based on the foregoing, we conclude that Blue Cross is exempted from the Alabama Provider Acts by the provisions of § 10-4-115 and § 27-1-4. The Court of Appeals' first question is answered in the affirmative.
Having answered the first question in the affirmative, we must now determine whether the exemption granted by § 10-4-115 and § 27-1-4 to Blue Cross and to others similarly situated, violates provisions of the Alabama Constitution, as claimed by those parties the Court of Appeals refers to as "the providers."
The providers contend first that these sections violate the Alabama Constitution because, they argue, § 10-1-115 imposes an additional requirement for the enactment of legislation and that requirement conflicts with the legislative procedure established by the Alabama Constitution of 1901. To support their contention, they cite Tayloe v. Davis, 212 Ala. 282, 102 So. 433 (1924), in which this Court considered a challenge to the validity of a statute requiring that amendments to the budget bill be made by a two-thirds majority of both houses. This Court held that that statute violated the Alabama Constitution. The providers contend that § 10-4-115, like the statute in Tayloe, adds additional requirements for the passage of legislation not set forth in the Constitution, We disagree. Section 10-4-115 does not require a specific majority of the Legislature, as the statute involved in Tayloe did. Section 10-4-115 merely requires that if the Legislature is intending to change the provisions of § 10-4-100, then the legislation that makes that change must explicitly show that intention; this requirement is consistent with the requirements of § 45 of the Constitution for providing notice of the purposes of an Act.
The providers also argue that these statutes violate Article IV, § 108, of the Alabama Constitution. That section provides:
The providers contend that Blue Cross, although organized under the provisions of § 10-4-115, is an insurance company, and that that statute gives Blue Cross protection from legislation that affects other insurance companies, and this violates the Constitution. We cannot accept this argument.
Admittedly, Blue Cross, because it is organized under the provisions of § 10-4-100, is exempt from the operation of certain laws that regulate insurance companies, but the law does not afford Blue Cross any benefits that would not be provided to any other company organized under the provisions of § 10-4-100. We cannot hold that § 10-4-115 or § 27-1-4 violates Article IV, § 108, of the Alabama Constitution, because these sections apply not only to Blue Cross, but also to any other entity organized under the provisions of § 10-4-100.
Because we cannot hold that § 10-4-115 and § 27-1-4 violate the Alabama Constitution, the answer to the second question is in the negative.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
HOOPER, C.J., and SHORES, HOUSTON, COOK, and SEE, JJ., concur.