How Corporate Greed Shrunk Rural Tennessee’s Access To Allergy Care

TL;DR: According to relevant legal documents, there was a coordinated effort by Amerigroup Tennessee and a dominant allergy practice to pressure insurers into audits, denials, and price limits which ended up stripping primary-care clinics of allergy services, starved a supplier of revenue, and reduced people’s access to medical treatment.

Holy run on sentence, Batman!

The Sharpest Finding

The appellate (appeals) court recounts allegations that Amerigroup Tennessee and a dominant allergy practice orchestrated a campaign to “flush [United Allergy] out of Tennessee,” with Amerigroup estimating it “stood to recover” about $6 million if that happened.

The evil tactics included coordinated audits, claim denials, repayment demands, and reimbursement caps that choked off primary-care allergy services and cut off payments to a key supplier that supported those clinics.

The Corporate Misconduct

How the allergy market worked: A single corporate group (which are the Allergy, Asthma and Sinus Center) performed about 70% of allergy testing and immunotherapy in Tennessee. Primary-care physicians historically faced high entry costs and typically referred patients to allergists, leaving many rural patients without nearby options and suppressing supply.

What United Allergy did: United Allergy supplied trained technicians, testing materials, and equipment to more than 80 primary-care practices, while doctors kept full control of medical decisions. The model brought allergy care closer to where patients live and, in appropriate cases, taught patients home administration to reduce travel burdens.

Who pays: Insurers cover about 98% of allergy care. TennCare pays three managed-care companies, including Amerigroup, and requires reimbursement for eligible allergy services billed under standard codes such as CPT 95165. Rather than billing insurers though, United Allergy charged fixed fees to physicians, aligned to the insurer’s reimbursement schedule.

The pressure campaign: After lobbying state officials failed, the Center’s executive turned to insurers. From 2016 to 2019, Amerigroup and others ramped up audits, denied claims, sought recoupments, limited reimbursement to a fixed number of doses (capped at 150 units per member per year with a three-month supply limit), and barred payment for home-administered immunotherapy. Physicians who worked with United Allergy shut down services or left the program. Patients—especially in rural counties—lost access. United Allergy lost revenue and contracts.

What the court decided: The appeals court agreed with the lower court’s result. It stressed that the case turned on remedies, not merits. The opinion frames United Allergy as an “indirect seller” two steps up the chain: insurers dealt directly with physicians, and the supplier’s harm came only after clinics lost reimbursement and severed ties.