Aetna Terminates Its Proposed "Ingenix" Class Action Settlement

On March 13, Aetna announced that it would not finalize its proposed settlement of In re Aetna UCR Litigation, a class action proceeding in the District of New Jersey that focused on Aetna's use of a database of "usual and customary" reimbursement rates that plaintiffs alleged had improperly lowered member reimbursements for out of network claims. The private action followed an earlier New York Attorney General investigation into the manner in which Ingenix, at the time a data collection subsidiary of UnitedHealth, calculated usual and customary rates for several insurers, including Aetna. The New York Attorney General ultimately contended that the database had unfairly reduced reimbursements to insureds, leading to settlement with over a dozen health insurers that had used the database. UnitedHealth, Ingenix's parent company, ultimately paid $350 million to resolve the matter.