Picking up where he left off last month, Sen. John “Jay” Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) has asked 18 of the nation’s largest health insurers for more information on how they reimburse consumers.

John "Jay" Rockefeller

In March, Rockefeller’s Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held two hearings on the issue, including a session with representatives from UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary, Ingenix, which operates an out-of-network reimbursement database used by numerous insurers nationwide.

That database has come under scrutiny following an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, which found fault with the technology resulting in under-reimbursement of hundreds of millions of customers.

To date, Cuomo has reached agreements with seven of the top 25 health insurers in the nation to stop using the Ingenix system and secured $90 million for a new, non-profit entity to operate what he hopes is an unbiased database.

At the Senate meeting last month, Rockefeller pledged to get information from the other 18 large health insurers and April 2 sent a letter to them asking what data they use to determine reimbursement rates and their involvement with the Ingenix database.

He is also seeking information from the insurers on how they will operate once the Ingenix database ceases operation. Rockefeller asked all 18 insurers to respond by April 24.

“This issue potentially affects the more than 100 million Americans whose health insurance coverage includes services rendered by out-of-network health care providers,” Rockefeller wrote in the letters.

The 18 letters were sent to: Kaiser Foundation Group; Humana Group; HCSC Group; American Family Corp. Group; CareFirst, Inc.; Highmark Inc.; Independence Blue Cross, BlueCross BlueShield of Michigan; BlueCross BlueShield of California; BlueCross BlueShield of New Jersey, BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts; BlueCross BlueShield of Florida; Coventry Health Care Inc.; Health Net of California; AIG; Regence Corp.; and UnumProvident.