Heffner v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama, Inc.

CARNES, Circuit Judge:

In this interlocutory appeal we must decide whether the district court abused its discretion in certifying, under Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2), a class consisting of as many as 240,000 participants and beneficiaries of hundreds of group health plans. The plaintiffs seek a refund of their calendar year deductibles from their common claims administrator, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama (Blue Cross). They claim that because the summary plan descriptions (SPDs) issued by Blue Cross in connection with their respective plans stated that there was no calendar year deductible,…