AG Cuomo Warns Preferred Care, Other Insurers

By Peter Iglinksi

Rochester, NY – The New York State Attorney General's Office is warning three health insurers about their doctor ranking programs.

The insurers are Empire Blue Cros Blue Shield, Rochester's Preferred Care and HIP Plan of New York.

Linda Lacewell is Special Counsel for Economic and Social Justice with the Attorney General's Office. She says the insurers are rating doctors according to quality and efficiency -- and, in Preferred Care's case, customer satisfaction.

Lacewell says the AG's office wants to know how the rankings are arrived at. She says the attorney general is concerned about a possible conflict-of-interest on the part of the insurance companies which pay for the care. The attorney general wants to make sure that the insurers are not simply steering people to doctors who charge less.

Preferred Care spokesman Mike Traphagan says Preferred Care is still in the planning stages of its program. He says the earliest that it would launch to consumers would be next May.

He says the insurer is "gearing up" to answer all of Cuomo's questions.

And he says doctor-ranking programs are not new. Traphagan says the've been demonstrated to promote quality and help consumers in their decision-making.