The NY Times reported today that Attorney General Mario Cuomo plans on bringing an action against United and a number of other insurers because of the way they have been handling out-of-network claims.

Most companies use Ingenix to determine what the usual and customary rate of a service is... as you would expect...Ingenix claims that the UCR for an office visit in NYC is $77. That leaves the patient to pay the balance of a few hundred dollars for a typical NYC consultation.

We have all faced this problem many many times in the past. Hopefully Mr. Cuomo can figure out how to bring this practice to an end.