UnitedHealth Drops SCOTUS Appeal Over Disputed Pay Practice (1)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. is dropping an appeal that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to bless the insurer’s controversial method of collecting overpayments from out-of-network doctors.

UnitedHealth and a group of medical providers Oct. 21 agreed to dismiss the case, which asked the justices to consider the insurer’s practice of “cross-plan offsetting.” UnitedHealth previously petitioned the justices to reverse an appeals court decision holding that the practice was barred by the insurer’s health plans and may violate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The parties said in a prior filing that they were engaged in “advanced settlement discussions” that were likely ...