Aetna to pay up to $120 million to settle case over payments

Aetna Inc on Friday said it agreed to pay as much as $120 million to settle litigation over its practices on the payment of claims for services by providers with which Aetna does not have a contract.

The agreement calls for Aetna to pay $60 million, plus as much as $60 million more following a claims submission period that will begin after a court grants final approval to the settlement.

According to a court filing, the plaintiffs said Aetna improperly used third-party databases to systematically underpay claims involving services and supplies provided to members by out-of-network providers. The litigation also challenged other methods by which Aetna calculated out-of-network reimbursement rates, and its disclosures for how it calculated those rates.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)