AMA voices objections to United deals

The Association decries the lack of challenges to health plan mergers while doctors get more scrutiny.

By Bob Cook, AMNews staff. Aug. 8, 2005.

The American Medical Association sent a 10-page letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to express what it called its "strong opposition" to UnitedHealth Group's proposed acquisition of PacifiCare Health Systems and its "concerns about the impact" of United's proposed deal to acquire Florida-based Neighborhood Health Plans.

The AMA, in a letter dated July 20, wrote Gonzales that United, the nation's second-largest private-pay health plan, and WellPoint, the nation's largest, are "clearly bent on market domination," and that their market power siphons money away from patient care to corporate profits.

Specifically, the letter listed four objections to the $8.1 billion United/PacifiCare merger, as well as similar concerns for the Neighborhood Health Plans acquisition: a potential for monopoly pricing; higher barriers to entry for competing plans; monopsony power over physicians; and the plans' already poor relationships with physicians.

United has said its mergers would be beneficial to all, including physicians. The deals are under review by federal and state regulators.

However, the AMA and others recently have been involved in efforts against United. The AMA and state and local medical societies have spoken out against the company's pay-for-performance plan, criticizing it as cost-based and not a true measure of physician quality. United says it has made adjustments to the plan that will allow more physicians to benefit from it, but objections remain.