Managed care companies Cigna Corp. and Aetna more than doubled their spending on federal government lobbying in the second quarter, as they focused on issues related to health care reform, The Associated Press report.
Philadelphia-basd Cigna, with major operations in Bloomfield, spent $560,000 in this year’s April-to-June period, up from $260,000 in the same quarter last year, according to reports filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The total also represented an increase from the $400,000 Cigna spent in the first quarter of this year.
Cigna lobbied on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law Congress passed in March that aims to eventually provide coverage for millions of uninsured people. It lobbied on the taxation of employer-provided health benefits and “implementation issues” for the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs, according to the five-page report.
The insurer also lobbied Congress on the Open Access to Courts Act of 2009.
Meanwhile, Hartford-based Aetna spent $1.57 million lobbying in the quarter, up from $631,846 in the same quarter of 2009. However, the total fell slightly from this year’s first quarter, when the health care reform debate peaked in Congress, and Aetna spent $1.64 million.
In the second quarter, Aetna lobbied on Medicaid drug rebates, the promotion of generic drugs in Medicare and government-run negotiations of Medicare drug prices.
Conversely Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group, which has major operations in Hartford, dialed down its spending on federal lobbying in the second quarter, as it spent $650,000 in the April to June period, or 40 percent less than its total of about $1.1 million in the same quarter last year. The amount also dropped slightly from the $660,000 it spent in the first quarter.
Aside from the reform law, UnitedHealth also lobbied on the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 and the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act.
