The AP reports, “Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, wants answers at a hearing Tuesday from the chief executives of UnitedHealth Group Inc. and its subsidiary Ingenix Inc., a claims database used by insurers nationwide to calculate out-of-network rates.” The inquiry follows lawsuits “alleging that UnitedHealth and Ingenix manipulated rate data so insurers had to pay less and patients more for out-of-network services.” Typically, “when patients go out of network, their plan doesn’t actually pay 70% of the doctor’s visit cost. It pays 70% of what it determines is the ‘usual, customary and reasonable’ cost for the procedure or doctor’s visit in question.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
