US Health Insurance Regulator Leaving to Take a Job at UnitedHealth Care As Vice President of the Optum Division – Moving to the “For Profit Side” With Business Intelligence Algorithm Dollars To Review

Here’s yet one more government employee who’s more than likely getting a substantial increase in working for the insurance industry.  As the the article states here he was the one responsible for enacting the US insurance regulations created by the healthcare overhaul.  Now I am guessing that he is on the other side of the fence and being he has the first hand knowledge of all that was written in to law, perhaps a priority here could be to find the “loop holes” in the law when working on the private side.  This is is nothing new as that’s what happens usually when one moves to the other side.  About a year ago the Health Insurance Exchange Chief left HHS and Mr. Larsen was the spokesperson making the announcement. 

Health Insurance Exchange Chief at HHS Announces He Will Be Leaving–Who Wants That Job, Really…

If you happened to watch the PBS documentary about Wall Street, that’s what their folks were told to do, “find the loop holes” and granted it’s not as easy in healthcare but again it’s what occurs when a change as such is made.  He’s going over it appears to the Optum side, the old “Ingenix” area to where formulas and algorithms are king and create a lot of profit for the company.  To make a bit of a stark comparison I posted the video with Jamie Dimon from Jon Stewart yesterday and it’s worth a watch as we are talking “regulation” in both areas and Dimon had no clue and the folks in the Senate looked like a “peanut” gallery of sorts with their comments.

“The Person the Hardest on Jamie Dimon Was Jamie Dimon” Testifying Before Congress This Week at the Senate Banking Committee Jon Stewart Video

 

United is not in this category as they have been doing analytics for profit even before it became stylish to do so. Remember the Cuomo case on the short pays on out of network charges that went on for 15 years…again a long time.  BD 

AMA Announces Doctors And Patients Can Expect To See the UnitedHealthCare/Ingenix Class Action Settlement Checks In the Mail Soon - Out of Network Short Payments–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 19

In comparison it looks like regulation on the government side is losing the man at the top but hopefully there are some in the ranks with some algorithmic and formula knowledge to follow him as he takes all that knowledge and experience from his work at the government with him. It’s all about the math and formulas when it comes to profits.  BD 

UnitedHealthCare 1st Quarter of 2012 Yields over $1 Billion in Net Profits–25% of the Nation Still Remains Uninsured

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Steve Larsen, the government administrator directing enactment of U.S. insurance regulations created by the 2010 health-care overhaul, said he is leaving to take a job with UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) (UNH)

Larsen will resign as head of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight in July to become an executive vice president at UnitedHealth’s Optum unit, he said in an e-mail.

Larsen worked for Amerigroup Corp. (AGP) (AGP), a Virginia Beach, Virginia-based insurer specializing in Medicaid plans, before joining the Department of Health and Human Services (30581MF) in 2010 and had served as Maryland’s insurance commissioner.

He will be replaced temporarily by Mike Hash, an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius while Tavenner searches for a permanent replacement, she said.

Larsen’s position made him one of the country’s most powerful regulators of the health insurance industry, said Joel Michaels, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery in Washington who represents insurance companies.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-15/u-dot-s-dot-health-insurance-regulator-to-leave-oversight-job