This is News?
Posted by Advocate Aaron · Leave a Comment
The recent $50 million settlement by Oxford Insurance and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, to halt accusations by the New York attorney general’s office that the health insurance providers overcharged millions of Americans hundreds of millions of dollars got a lot of media coverage (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28628880/). But it isn’t news – this is what we’ve been talking about for years!
Undoubtedly, New York isn’t the only state in which this occurred, nor is Oxford/UnitedHealth the only company that should be investigated. The research firm that provided the reimbursement rate figures, Ingenix (also owned by UnitedHealth), serves several other insurers. The article says that other companies will be investigated – but how many? How many other research firms fix the numbers? How many other insurance companies are overcharging?
And what happens to the millions of Americans who are overcharged? Women with newborns, those struggling with diabetes or fighting cancer – how do they also contend with bills totaling tens of thousands of dollars? How many people have died because they could no longer afford treatment after being overcharged?
The health insurance conglomerate denies the allegations, of course, but was willing to pay $50 million to make them go away. That’s a lot of money to pay if you’re innocent.
Some good will come out of the settlement, though. The $50 million is to be used for a nonprofit organization that will determine patient reimbursement rates, and the story did grab the attention of the media (about time!).
Still, it doesn’t seem as though justice was served. If you swindle people out of money, you should not be allowed to use that money to buy your way out of trouble. And now, the company is left with a gaping $50 million void in the budget – whose dollars do you think are going to fill that void?
