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Cuomo reaches pacts with more insurers

November
20

UnitedHealth Group Inc. and another insurer have reached agreements with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo regarding the their physician’s ranking programs, which includes measures for cost and quality among health providers.

In addition to UnitedHealth, the nation’s largest health insurer, Cuomo also reached an agreement with Group Health Inc. and Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, or HIP, Cuomo said today.

The pacts bring to five the number of insurers that have adopted Cuomo’s model for ranking doctors, Cuomo’s office said. It previously reached agreements with Aetna, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna Healthcare.

“We are witnessing the insurance market correcting itself,� Cuomo said in a statement. “The three largest insurers in the country have now all said they will apply the principles of our model for doctor rankings nationwide.�

UnitedHealth’s agreement also applies to Oxford Health Plans Inc. unit, Cuomo said.

The attorney general’s physicians ranking model was created in consultation with the American Medical

Association and the Medical Society of the State of New York, along with a host of consumer advocacy groups including Yonkers-based Consumers Union and the National Partnership for Women & Families, the statement said.

The agreements followed an investigation by Cuomo into insurers’ physician-ranking programs, which he charged simply steered patients to cheaper doctors not better ones.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 7:11 pm by David Schepp.
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Business in the Burbs is our online news blog about businesses based or operating in the Lower Hudson Valley. Visitors here will also find items of interest to consumers in the region. Most contributions are from business reporters and editors covering Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.

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