NY AG: Health Net to use new out-of-network rates
NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) - Insurer Health Net (HNT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) agreed to use a new database to set the reimbursement rates patients are paid when they use out-of-network doctors, the New York attorney general said on Thursday.
Health Net, which serves 2 million people around the nation, will contribute $1.6 million to the new database that will set rates. Twelve health insurers have agreed to pay nearly $100 million to create the independent computer system that will determine reasonable and customary rates.
Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that his reforms will save patients millions of dollars because they "have transformed a conflict-of-interest-ridden system that was used by health insurance companies to manipulate rates and underpay patients who went out of network for health care."
Cuomo said the agreement marks the end of his industry-wide probe. (Reporting by Joan Gralla in New York; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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