The feud between Meriter-UnityPoint Health and Unity Health Plans, the Madison-based HMO affiliated with UW Health, continues. In December, in the wake of UnityPoint Health’s affiliation with Meriter, Unity Health Plans sued the Iowa-based company in an attempt to prevent it from using the name UnityPoint Health in southwestern Wisconsin, claiming such a move would create confusion in the marketplace.
Now, Meriter-UnityPoint Health’s HMO, Physicians Plus, has submitted a complaint to the State Office of the Commissioner of Insurance charging Unity Health Plans with illegally restraining competition, and the state is investigating the complaint.
Physicians Plus alleges that Unity and its umbrella company, UW Health, have “coerced and intimidated large commercial insureds to drop PPLUS as an option from their policies as a condition of having Unity as an insurance option,” according to records obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal.
Among the complaints filed by former president Linda Hoff is an accusation that Unity and UW Health demanded an 80% price increase for Physicians Plus members in 2012, after Physicians Plus announced it would direct members to Meriter rather than UW for certain services. Members of Dean and Group Health Cooperative apparently did not receive such increases.
Physicians Plus also maintains that an advertising campaign run by UW Health was created to market Unity while creating “fear on PPLUS groups, prospective groups, members and prospective members over their access to UW physicians.”
In 2013, Physicians Plus lost $16.5 million and membership fell from 104,000 to 74,000. Meanwhile, Unity lost $700,000, but membership grew from 120,000 to 150,000.
UW Health continues to explore partnership opportunities with Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care, which could expand Unity’s presence in the state.
A State Office of the Commissioner of Insurance spokesperson said the complaint could take several months to sort through.
