The Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations (FIPO), has expressed dismay at BUPA''s claim it acts as a broker for patients, helping them negotiate the best price and quality of treatment.
The organisation, representing independent medical organisations, claims this is a financial move by Bupa.
Geoffrey Glazer, chairman of FIPO, explained: "We have requested on many occasions to see their quality data and this has not been forthcoming.
In fact, in a recent BBC broadcast Bupa's UK health insurance managing director, Dr Natalie Jane Macdonald admitted she ‘did not know' where some of the data came from."
FIPO also disputes Bupa chief executive, Stuart Fletcher's view expressed in the announcement of his organisation's half-year results that "there is an affordability issue (in the private healthcare market) because the number of people taking up health insurance is declining and in the medium term there will be an affordability crunch".
FIPO pointed instead to private policyholders' only choice being either to remain with their historic insurer or exit the market altogether; and individual policyholders suffering from pre-existing conditions cannot shop around for the best medical policies.
Commenting on Bupa's call to the Competition Commission for "structural changes" to the healthcare market, Glazer added: "We also welcome the Competition Commission inquiry in the independent healthcare sector which we hope will take a holistic view of the marketplace, including the role of the insurers, given that some insurers are dramatically changing and distorting the private healthcare sector through removal of patient choice of both consultant and hospital."
