A comprehensive investigation by @ChrisDHamby, highlighted on the front page of @nytimes, has uncovered how health insurers, in collaboration with MultiPlan, a data analytics firm, systematically reduce payments to out-of-network (OON) medical providers, thereby increasing their own profits through hidden fees. This practice benefits insurers and MultiPlan financially but places an undue financial burden on patients, who often find themselves responsible for the significant difference between what insurers pay and what providers charge. The investigation involved a review of over 50,000 documents and more than 100 interviews, revealing several disturbing findings. For instance, a heart surgery patient was left with a bill exceeding $100,000 after their insurer agreed to pay only $5,449.27 for the procedure. Additionally, the investigation revealed that insurers and MultiPlan sometimes earn more from processing a claim than the medical provider receives for the actual treatment, with court records showing that Cigna, for example, collected nearly $4.47 million from employers for processing claims, while the treatment centers received only $2.56 million, and MultiPlan took $1.22 million. MultiPlan's top revenue generator has been identified as an algorithm-based tool called Data iSight, which consistently produces the lowest payment recommendations. These practices have led to patients foregoing care or discontinuing long-term treatments due to unexpectedly large bills, with appeals often proving fruitless.