A health care organization that promotes itself as a safe haven for consumers and their concerns about Intermountain Healthcare has, in fact, provided cover for Intermountain's fiercest competitor.

Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah not only bankrolled the nonprofit Utah Healthcare Coalition with a $45,000 contribution, company representatives were among the brain trust that created the coalition in the first place.

"We saw a need, we saw a solution, and we sought out leadership. We have nothing to be ashamed of," Regence spokeswoman Kathleen Murphy said Wednesday.

Murphy insists the company never asked for confidentiality, never concealed its membership in the coalition and, when confronted this week by a KSL-TV reporter, divulged the size of its donation. But Wednesday, Murphy and the coalition's former director told The Salt Lake Tribune that Regence was a key player - a revelation that could further undermine the credibility of the coalition, not to mention Regence, at a time when both are calling for more transparency in Utah's health care debate.

Regence wasn't the only IHC competitor to join the coalition; MountainStar Healthcare contributed $400 to the group but pulled out last week amid heightened scrutiny of the coalition's refusal to disclose its members and its failure to get permission from state regulators to engage in fundraising.

According to Murphy, the coalition grew out of conversations last summer among Regence representatives and consumers, doctors and health care providers concerned about the growing health care crisis and, specifically, IHC's ability to control access and intimidate critics.

At the time, a legislative task force set up to scrutinize IHC's business practices was devolving into a showdown between IHC and Regence, the state's largest health insurers. Other players were reluctant to step forward, fearful of being harassed or cut out of IHC's network. Those concerns were magnified when, in July, IHC's top boss confronted a senior Regence executive at a social event in Cedar City and accused him of providing misleading testimony to the task force. "It was an attempt to intimidate us into either not testifying before the task force or change what we were saying to the task force," Regence executive Kevin Bischoff said at the time.

Former coalition director Jeff Fox stopped short of saying the coalition was Regence's idea.

"Blue Cross didn't come to me and say, 'Would you do this?' But there was a convergence of interests," Fox told the Tribune.

Added Murphy: "We played a significant role in encouraging the coalition, and we provided the seed money. But we don't decide who sits on the board, we don't tell the director what to say and we don't decide who gets to be a member."

Yet Regence was among those members consulted when, in December, IHC asked to join the group and was turned down, Fox said.

In a letter to IHC explaining the board's decision, Fox said the group was worried the company's participation "could result in a chilling effect on consumers - including Coalition members - being able to express the full range of their concerns to the Task Force."

Fox has since stepped down and the board of directors has been overhauled. In March, the coalition hired Roger Ball, the state's longtime consumer advocate on utility matters, to be its director. Ball's appointment attracted media attention, but not as much as his refusal to say who hired him or who was behind the coalition.

Ball said Wednesday the new board recently abandoned the policy of granting blanket confidentiality to its members. From now on, members will remain anonymous only upon request.

IHC spokesman Daron Cowley gave Regence credit for acknowledging, however belatedly, its involvement in the coalition.

"But clearly we have a concern that a group that says it's been organized to provide input by the common citizen is actually a group funded by the nation's largest insurer," Cowley said.

Board member Steven Ray, who says he was "dumbfounded" to learn the coalition had spurned IHC's attempts to participate, suggested a remedy.

"Our goal is not only to have IHC join but to have them match dollar-for-dollar contributions," said Ray, a 47-year-old pilot from Sandy. "And it's in their best interest to do so. Who best to ensure the coalition doesn't become a front for any one organization?"

lfantin@sltrib.com