Committee physician accuses 'gaming' of MLR, says profits prioritized over patients

An unidentified physician who spoke during a session of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce accused unspecified parties of "gaming" the medical loss ratio (MLR) and said that practice places corporate profits ahead of patients.

The speaker began by invoking medical ethics: "As a doctor, of which there are many of us on this committee, we took the Hippocratic oath... an oath that says, above all do no harm," and then said the oath "is not reflected in the blatant gaming of the MLR," adding, "you are clearly putting corporate profits above patients." The speaker attributed harm to patients as the result of that practice.

The transcript uses the abbreviation MLR without defining it; MLR commonly stands for "medical loss ratio," a standard metric used in health insurance to describe the share of premium revenue spent on clinical services and quality improvement rather than administrative costs or profits. The speaker did not specify which organizations or firms were responsible for the alleged "gaming," nor did the provided excerpt include supporting data, examples, or a call for a specific committee action.

No motions, votes, or formal directives related to the remarks appear in the supplied transcript segment. The provided record is limited to the single exchange above and does not include further discussion, rebuttal, or staff responses in the available segments.

The hearing continued beyond the provided excerpt; the transcript supplied here contains only the remarks summarized above.