A New York has granted final approval to a $350 million settlement between the American Medical Association and the UnitedHealth Group, giving doctors just one day file claims to share in the fund.
The approval, announced Sept. 20 by Judge Lawrence McKenna, marks the culmination of a legal entanglement over UnitedHealth's out-of-network physician payments that has taken many years to resolve. The settlement was reached last year, but only now were details ironed out in court. (Similar litigation against Aetna, Cigna, and WellPoint is pending.)
The AMA launched an online resource earlier this year to assist physicians in filing claims to compensate them for more than a decade of artificially low payments for out-of-network services.
"The AMA is offering its support to physicians who are now receiving mailings containing details and claim forms regarding the historic UnitedHealth settlement," then-AMA President J. James Rohack, MD, said at the time. "The new AMA guide provides physicians with step-by-step assistance in determining eligibility, assembling documentation and filing a claim under the terms of the settlement."
For more information related to the case, visit the AMA Web site.