William R. Milnes Jr. won’t be getting any more money out of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont. At least, not anytime soon.
A federal judge has dimissed a lawsuit filed by the HMO’s former chief executive officer that sought an additional $575,000 in retirement pay.
Readers will remember Milnes as the Blue Cross exec who departed the company with a jaw-dropping $7.2 million golden parachute in 2008. State insurance regulators ruled in 2009 that the pay package was excessive under state insurance law, and ordered Blue Cross to reimburse $3 million of that sum to subscribers in the form of lower rates.
In the aftermath, Milnes moved to Florida. But he resurfaced in Vermont last year when he sued Blue Cross in federal court for another $575,000 in retirement pay — plus $200,000 in interest — that he said the company still owed him.
Last week, U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled that Blue Cross doesn’t have to pay it. The company would be in violation of that same insurance law barring excessive compensation if it awarded the $575,000 to Milnes, the judge ruled. Murtha also said the “impracticability doctrine” excuses Blue Cross from meeting its contractual obligation to Milnes.
“Mr. Milnes would have BCBSVT pay him additional compensation above and beyond the amount already ruled excessive,” Murtha wrote in the 18-page decision. “Although due to Mr. Milnes following his retirement, these payments reward work performed during the same years BISCHA ruled he received excessive compensation.”
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Stay in school kids, sticking up convenience stores for a hundred bucks gets you jail time. With an education you can rob everybody in Vermont and retire to Florida.