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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. was sued for alleged price-fixing today by the American Medical Society and other doctors groups.
The AMA said in a statement that it filed its lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles. However, documents for the suit were not yet posted on the court system’s Web service.
The lawsuit alleges that WellPoint worked with other health insurers to underpay doctors who were “out of network,” which means the doctors had not negotiated pre-arranged discounts with the health insurer.
The AMA previously sued WellPoint rivals Aetna and Cigna with similar accusations. The new lawsuit suit claims all three insurers relied on a faulty database of doctor-reimbursement data called Ingenix, which is maintained by health insurer UnitedHealthcare.
Those four major health insurers all paid to settle similar accusations involving the Ingenix database brought against them by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
In February, WellPoint agreed to pay $10 million to settle the New York probe. WellPoint also agreed to stop using the Ingenix database, which Cuomo called “defective and manipulated.”
“WellPoint acknowledges the conflicts of interest in the Ingenix database, which the attorney general’s investigation brought to light, and we support his office’s efforts to increase the transparency of health care costs,” Ken Goulet, the CEO of WellPoint’s commercial business, said in a statement.
Cuomo will use fees paid by WellPoint and its peers to create and fund a not-for-profit database to replace Ingenix that will be accessible both to insurers and their customers. UnitedHealth said in January it would discontinue the database.
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