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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\"></p>                                <p class=\"imgtitle\">Greg Abbott (R)</p>           AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline)-Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas has agreed to stop using its doctor-rating program under an agreement the company reached with the Texas attorney general's office.<br /><br />The agreement announced Friday will end Attorney General Greg Abbott's investigation into the rating system, which relied on cost-based indicators to rate physicians.<br /><br />The attorney general alleged that the company's Risk Adjusted Cost Index (RACI) was based on inaccurate information and flawed methodology, and as a result patients were misled about their doctors.<br /><br />Moreover, doctors whose patients required costly treatments were \"unfairly penalized\" by the system, the AG's office alleged in court papers.<br /><br />The Assurance of Voluntary Compliance also ends a probe into the handling of so-called out-of-network referrals by Blue Cross. <br /><br />Authorities alleged that the insurance company threatened doctors who referred their patients to specialists that were outside the Blue Cross provider network. <br /><br />Under Texas law, insurance providers cannot interfere with patients' right to receive medical advice from their doctors, including referrals to other medical providers.<br /><br />\"It is not appropriate to interfere with the protected doctor-patient relationship by terminating a doctor solely for making good faith out-of-network referrals for necessary care,\" Abbott said in a statement.<br /><br />In accepting the settlement, Richardson-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, a division of Health Care Service Corp., has not admitted to any wrongdoing.<br /><br /><i>From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at <a href=\"mailto:chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com\">chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.</a></i><br />"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510520829-blue-cross-blue-shield-settles-with-texas-ag-over-rating-system-doctor-referrals>