Article - June 17, 2008 - Chicago Tribune

AMA to rate business practices of health plans

By Bruce Japsen

Turning the tables on the health insurance industry's rankings of doctors, the American Medical Association on Monday said it will begin rating business practices of health plans that it says slows payments to doctors and confuses consumers who are demanding pricing transparency.

The national physicians' group, in Chicago this week for its annual policy-making meeting, said it for the first time is providing a national health insurer report card that examines claims processing performance of seven national commercial insurance companies as well as Medicare. Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and UnitedHealth Group are among the insurers that will be rated.

While the report card is aimed to help doctors negotiate contracts with insurers and to reduce the claims related costs, the AMA said it also could lead to improvements in consumers' understanding of their medical bills and how medical care is priced.

"The goal of the AMA campaign is to hold health insurance companies accountable for making claims processing more cost effective and transparent, and to educate and empower physicians so they are no longer at the mercy of a chaotic payment system that takes countless hours away from patient care," said AMA board member Dr. William A. Dolan.

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