Monday, September 20, 2021

Unions are mostly evil

Aetna sues NYC, union leaders over ‘tainted’ Medicare contract

New York’s largest private Medicare administrator is suing the Big Apple and its local union leaders for allegedly awarding a $34 billion “tainted” contract to an unqualified rival bidder.

Insurance giant Aetna’s bombshell lawsuit against New York City and the Municipal Labor Committee alleges that the bidding process was fixed to favor Alliance, a consortium that includes Emblem Health and Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield, to operate the Medicare Advantage Plus program, which administers health benefits to 250,000 retired city workers.

“OLR [the city’s Office of Labor Relations] has selected an inexperienced and unqualified bidder through a procurement process that violated New York Procurement law, lacked transparency, and violated principles of public trust and fairness for a procurement that could last up to a minimum of five or as many as eleven years and generate $34 billion dollars in claims revenue,” Aetna alleges in its suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month.

Aetna and Alliance were the two finalists that city officials and union leaders considered for the whopping contract, which is anticipated to save the Big Apple about $3 billion over five years, or roughly $600 million a year.

Aetna is asking the court to nix the contract, which takes effect Jan. 1.


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