UnitedHealth inks $50M settlement with NY over Ingenix charges

After almost a year of wrangling, UnitedHealth Group has agreed on a settlement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo under which it will pay in $50 million to create a new database for its Ingenix subsidiary.

In early 2008, Cuomo went public with allegations that the physician charge data maintained by Ingenix--widely used by insurers as a basis for out-of-network payment--was inappropriately low. Insurers, in turn, were accused of paying unfairly low prices to out-of-network doctors when relying on Ingenix charge data. As part of his investigation, Cuomo delivered subpoenas to 16 insurance companies, though none were charged or sued.

UnitedHealth admitted to no wrongdoing in the settlement, but it did agree to replace existing Ingenix databases with the new, independent database of physician charges. The new database will be run by a not-for-profit, and the data will be freely available to consumers, providers and insurers.

To learn more about the settlement:
- read this Modern Healthcare article [1] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
NY sues UnitedHealth over MD payments [2]
New York AG expands health plan investigation [3]
UnitedHealth's Ingenix faces mounting legal troubles [4]