The Indianapolis-based insurer also will contribute $10 million toward the creation of an independent database to determine out-of-network reimbursement rates for consumers across the nation. The company joins national payers UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and CIGNA; and New York insurers MVP Health Care, Independent Health and HealthNow, in committing more than $91 million toward the new database.
WellPoint and the other insurers reached agreements with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who charged that the Ingenix database intentionally skewed downward the "usual and customary" rates on which reimbursement was determined.
WellPoint's agreement with Cuomo covers the entire company, not just its Empire BlueCross Blue Shield plan in New York that Cuomo was investigating.
WellPoint also joins some of the payers, notably UnitedHealth Group and Aetna, in acknowledging conflicts of interest in the Ingenix database. Ingenix is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.
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