2 More N.Y. Insurers Abandon Database

Two more New York health insurers have agreed to stop using the Ingenix database that reportedly underpaid physicians for out-of-network medical services, and forced patients to pay a greater portion of the costs.

Following up on a story INN has been covering since January, Capital District Physicians' Health Plan Inc. and Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield will stop processing claims through the database after being named in a class-action lawsuits against Ingenix Inc., a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Inc.

UnitedHealth Group previously had struck an agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to pay $350 million to resolve the lawsuits. Both Aetna and CIGNA, also named in the lawsuits, had offered to settle out of court.

Last month, Aetna committed to pay $20 million, and CIGNA $10 million, to help establish an independent database used for calculating rates. These sums added to the $50 million UnitedHealth previously agreed to pay to fund the database.