From the sounds of it, things weren't all that friendly when Steve Hemsley and Andy Slavitt (CEO of UHG and CEO of Ingenix) met with a Senate Committee on Commerce, Sciences, and Transportation today. This was to discuss Ingenix's alleged establishment of arbritrarily low "out-of-network prices" used by the insurance industry to pay claims; to the detriment of the consumer.
Actually, Hemsley and Slavitt had some really important things to say to the Committee (if you want to read their testimony go here). But, it didn't sound like anyone listened very well. To give you an indication, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri stated at one point, "We need to be vigilant and stay on you like white on rice." Doesn't sound like a trusting partnership is forming here.
But, on this one I have to sympathize with United.
Getting a handle on health care fees (the old Usual, Customary, and Reasonable determination) has always been a chore in the system we've set up. Hemsley states in his testimony that our model is challenged "when the costs of a routine, identical medical procedure can vary widely within the same geographic region between private and public insurance, such as Medicare". Something needed to be set up- and United happened to capitalize on the opportunity. You can't blame them for developing something the system needed on a broad scale. (Now- the potential for a conflict-of-interest because of the way UHG is corporately structured may be another story).
The Committee failed to understand that establishing higher UCR non-par fees only shifts the dollars back to the employer in the system we have today. It sounds like they are saying that since the consumer doesn't have to pay- nobody will. That's not the way it works. It's another example of shifting the responsibility- as opposed to addressing inherent problems in the system itself.
Slavitt commented, "Trusted, accurate data and information technology comprise one of the keys to modernizing the health care system, particularly when combined with national quality standards and properly aligned incentives."
We couldn't agree more- and that should be the real message; but, sadly, we don't think Senator McCaskill and others got it.
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