In the battle over health care costs, private equity has it both ways

As medical practices owned by private equity firms fuel overbilling, a payment tool also backed by these investors is helping insurers increase their profits.

Insurance companies have long accused private hospitals and doctor groups of exorbitant bills that drive up health care costs. But a private equity-backed tool is helping insurers make billions of dollars and pass costs onto patients.

The tool, Data iSight, is the first offering of a cost control tool. company called MultiPlan that has attracted several rounds of private equity investment since positioning itself as a central player in the lucrative medical payments space. Today, Hellman & Friedman, the California-based private equity giant, and the Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund are among the company's largest investors.

L The evolution of Data iSight, which recommends how much to pay for each medical bill, is a new chapter in the story of private equity's influence on American health care.

A New York Times Investigation of Insurers Our relationship with MultiPlan has revealed that combatting abusive billing is only one aspect of working together. Low payments have saddled patients with surprisingly high bills, reduced salaries for doctors and other health care professionals, and left employers who fund health plans with high, often unanticipated costs while saving a lot of money. money to the nation's largest health insurance companies.

Often, when a person purchases insurance from an employer and sees a doctor outside the health insurance network plan, the insurer sends the invoice to MultiPlan to recommend an amount to be paid. MultiPlan and the insurer receive a processing fee from the employer, usually based on the final payment amount: the smaller the payment, the higher the fee.

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In the battle over health care costs, private equity has it both ways

As medical practices owned by private equity firms fuel overbilling, a payment tool also backed by these investors is helping insurers increase their profits.

Insurance companies have long accused private hospitals and doctor groups of exorbitant bills that drive up health care costs. But a private equity-backed tool is helping insurers make billions of dollars and pass costs onto patients.

The tool, Data iSight, is the first offering of a cost control tool. company called MultiPlan that has attracted several rounds of private equity investment since positioning itself as a central player in the lucrative medical payments space. Today, Hellman & Friedman, the California-based private equity giant, and the Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund are among the company's largest investors.

L The evolution of Data iSight, which recommends how much to pay for each medical bill, is a new chapter in the story of private equity's influence on American health care.

A New York Times Investigation of Insurers Our relationship with MultiPlan has revealed that combatting abusive billing is only one aspect of working together. Low payments have saddled patients with surprisingly high bills, reduced salaries for doctors and other health care professionals, and left employers who fund health plans with high, often unanticipated costs while saving a lot of money. money to the nation's largest health insurance companies.

Often, when a person purchases insurance from an employer and sees a doctor outside the health insurance network plan, the insurer sends the invoice to MultiPlan to recommend an amount to be paid. MultiPlan and the insurer receive a processing fee from the employer, usually based on the final payment amount: the smaller the payment, the higher the fee.

We are having difficulty retrieving the content of the article.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we check access. If you are in Reader mode, please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.

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