In an agreement with the New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, WellPoint Inc - the largest American health insurer in terms of membership - will make a payment of $10 million towards help for setting up an autonomous database to decide out-of-network rates of reimbursement for medical care.

Till now, the Indianapolis-based WellPoint, like many other insurers, has been making use of a database managed by Ingenix Inc. - a United Healthcare auxiliary - to determine "usual and customary" reimbursement rates.

The NY Attorney Cuomo has been contending that, owing to its strong lineage, Ingenix was benefiting from settling low reimbursement rates, thereby allowing insurers to underpay patients for out-of-network services.

WellPoint Executive Vice President Ken Goulet said that recognizing Ingenix's vested interest in the existing database - made known by the Attorney General's investigation - the company supports the efforts "to increase the transparency of health-care costs."

In early January, Cuomo struck a pact with United Healthcare, leading to talks about the closure of the Ingenix database. Accepting the proposal of setting up a new, sovereign database, United Healthcare agreed to pay $50 million.

In addition to the contributions from WellPoint and United Healthcare, a projected $10 million payment from Cigna Corp, and a $20 million contribution from Aetna Inc, will notch up figures for the total amount secured for new database to $90 million!