I’ve just read a story in the Times about a database run by United Health Care. IT was used by UHC and other insurance companies to come up with the “reasonable and customary” numbers used to decide out-of-network reimbursement.
UHC’s subsidiary that ran the database estimated low to the tune of 28%. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said:
New York reached an agreement with UHC. It’s not cirminal and it takes United Health off the hook. Cost to United Health Care–$50 million.
Hold on. Didn’t Cuomo say, “consumers were consistently low-balled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.” Taking Attorney General Cuomo at his word the least UHC could have made was $200,000,000. So, at the worst they had a 4:1 return on this investment.
Where is the disincentive to be evil?