The AMA, one of the plaintiffs, brought the suit to then-New York Attorney General and current Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2008, who confirmed that UnitedHealth Group artificially lowered out-of-network reimbursements to physicians.
UnitedHealth Group and other major insurers used a database of physician billing data to calculate out-of-network payments and later agreed in a 2009 settlement to reform its payment system and fund a new database that would set “usual, customary and reasonable rates,” according to the release.
The new database is the Fair and Independent Research Health, or FAIR Health, which reports out-of-network rates to the public.
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