The Lewin Group is owned by United Healthcare

[Political Junky]

Lewin group linked to private insurers : Covering Health

Lewin group linked to private insurers
Apr. 17th, 2009 by Andrew Van Dam
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
In the Columbia Journalism Review, Trudy Lieberman, president of AHCJ’s board of directors, scolded journalists for not mentioning that Lewin Group, the consultants who released a recent study claiming that a public insurance option would cost doctors and hospitals money, is ultimately part of a major insurance company.
(Lewin Group is) part of Ingenix, which is owned by United Healthcare Group, the insurance behemoth that has been buying up insurance companies left and right, expanding its reach into just about every segment of the health-insurance market. Its flagship, UnitedHealthcare, helps make it the largest health insurer in the country. It’s a safe bet that United is not too keen on a public plan that might shrink its business.
The relationship is disclosed in the study and Lieberman turned up evidence indicating that there may be no formal protections in place for Lewin Group’s editorial independence. She wondered why journalists, particularly those behind a widely used AP story, did not provide readers with any information or context on Lewin’s insurance industry ties and called on reporters to remedy their error next time Lewin Group comes up.

 

[johnrocks]

Just another reason to get corporatism as well as government out of healthcare.

 

[Political Junky]

Just another reason to get corporatism as well as government out of healthcare.

So, we should have neither private nor public healthcare in the US?

 

[johnrocks]

Just another reason to get corporatism as well as government out of healthcare.

So, we should have neither private nor public healthcare in the US?

No,we should have true,free market,consumer based health insurance for catastrophic things and pay cash for the Doctor's visits and such,imho. Over 1200 life insurance companies in this Country and only 5-6 Companies involved isn't free markets at work and government already provides roughly 60% of care directly or insurance anyway. I detest both the system that we have and yet another bureaucratic government system.

 

[EriktheRed]

More on the Lewin Group:


Research Firm Cited by GOP Is Owned by Health Insurer

The political battle over health-care reform is waged largely with numbers, and few number-crunchers have shaped the debate as much as the Lewin Group, a consulting firm whose research has been widely cited by opponents of a public insurance option.

To Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, it is "the nonpartisan Lewin Group." To Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, it is an "independent research firm." To Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the second-ranking Republican on the pivotal Finance Committee, it is "well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country."

Generally left unsaid amid all the citations is that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest insurers.

More specifically, the Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association, a physician's group, of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the "usual and customary" doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care.

This is all they got. Oh, and a few cries of "socialism bad!!"