OptumInsight Pays $12 Million for Patent Infringement

OptumInsight, an analytics-based subsidiary of the large payer, UnitedHealth Group, has been ordered to pay $12 million for a patent infringement to San Mateo, Calif.-based Cave Consulting.

Specifically, Optum was dinged the $12 million because its Impact Intelligence software uses a pre-defined set of medical conditions to evaluate each specialty type, Cave Consulting said in a press release. The two companies both use products that create physician efficiency scores, with a California federal jury revealing that OptumInsight used Cave's methodology for evaluating specialties. 

“Cave Consulting Group has invested significant time and effort to determine and develop the most appropriate methods for obtaining reliable and stable physician efficiency scores, and we are relieved that the jury was willing to help us protect that hard work," Douglas Cave, Ph.D., the CEO of Cave Consulting, said in a statement. 

The two companies have battle over patent infringement issues in the past. Last year, Cave claimed that OptumInsight infringed on a patent pertaining to grouping claims data.