Georgia Fines UnitedHealth for Not Paying Claims Promptly

This is not the first time UnitedHealth has needed to pay a state this year. This fine is mere chump change compared to the $400 million settlements UnitedHealth made with the New York Attorney General's office in January. Those settlements involved UnitedHealth's subsidiary, Ingenix, which most insurers used to determine "prevailing" and "usual, customary and reasonable charges" for out-of-network physician services.

Critics of Ingenix complained the database did not provide the correct charges for out-of-network services and charged that a health insurer-owned company should not have overseen the databases.

The agreement required UnitedHealth to shell out $400 million, cease two databases run by Ingenix, and help fund a new independent database that will collect price information. A number of other health insurers that used Ingenix to find out-of-network costs also agreed to pay to help create the new independent database that will be run by a nonprofit company, FAIR Health, which will work with Syracuse University and a group of other state universities.

UnitedHealth Group did not acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlements.

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