Friday, January 8, 2021 The United States House of Representatives and Senate recently passed the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act (CHIRA) that, among other things, amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to repeal the federal antitrust exemption only for health and dental insurance companies. CHIRA is expected to be signed into law by President Trump in the coming days, at which point certain collaborative practices by health and dental insurance companies that had previously been exempt from antitrust scrutiny may expose these companies to new antitrust risks. The “Business of Insurance” Exemption Prior to CHIRA, the McCarran-Ferguson Act exempted the “business of insurance” from federal antitrust law scrutiny if the challenged practice was otherwise subject to state regulation and did not amount to an “act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation.” 15 U.S.C. §§ 1012(b); 1013(b). While the “business of insurance” conceivably could encompass all actions taken by insurers in furtherance of their respective businesses, the Supreme Court has construed the “business of insurance” language narrowly to apply only to three general types of insurer business activities: practices that have “the effect of transferring or spreading a policyholder’s risk,” practices that are “an integral part of the policy relationship between the insurer and the insured” and practices that are “limited to entities within the insurance industry.”