THE NATIONAL ROSTER: COVENTRY

Headquarters:

Bethesda, Maryland

2007 Profits:

$626 million

2007 CEO Total Compensation:

Dale B. Wolf, $14,869,823

Since it’s not the biggest of the top dogs, you may not be familiar with Coventry or its subsidiaries: Altius, Carelink, Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, and others. Yet, according to Hoover’s, a business information firm, “Size matters in the tough world of managed care, and Coventry Health Care wants to measure up.”

Infamous For:

“Making the TV News”

In March, 2007, Julia Slaven spent a day protesting in front of the insurer’s Kansas City, Missouri office. Fighting cancer, she was hoping to persuade Coventry to cover a second blood transplant. The insurer said no, claiming the treatment was experimental. “We’ve been denied this coverage we need, and we pay $14,400 a year in premiums,” Slaven’s husband told KMBC-TV.

After Slaven’s televised protest, Coventry reconsidered.

But the company wouldn’t talk to “Good Morning America” when it interviewed another Missouri cancer patient whose treatment had been denied by Coventry. Mary Casey’s doctor had prescribed a drug FDA-approved for other cancers, triggering the “no” from Coventry: it wouldn’t cover experimental treatment.

Translation:

PRIVATE INSURANCE 101: Understand how private insurance works THE RULE BOOK: Find out the rules in your state GLOSSARY: Health Insurance Terms

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