WellPoint and Blue Shield of Calif. to stop dropping sick policyholders

By GottaLaff

This was one of the first stories I saw in my L.A. Times this morning. It was a good way to start the day:

Stung by criticism and facing tougher federal regulation, two of the nation's largest health insurers say they will stop the practice of dropping sick policyholders.

The moves Tuesday by WellPoint Inc., the parent of Anthem Blue Cross of California, and Blue Shield of California follow action by Congress and the Obama administration to crack down on the practice known as rescission.

That's no small thing. That's a reversal, in fact.

President Obama made rescission a central theme in his push for reform, and the new law makes it moot in 2014 when insurers will be required to sell coverage to everyone regardless of preexisting conditions. Effective later this year, the law explicitly bans rescissions unless an insurer can show that an individual intentionally misrepresented his or her medical history on an application.

On Tuesday, House leaders urged insurers to stop the practice ahead of schedule. [...]

On Tuesday, the company announced it would end the practice.

Let's remember who fought tooth and nail against passing health care reform.

That President Obama and his damn accomplishment keeps making the Rushpublics look bad. He just can't seem to help himself.

Anthem Blue Cross plans to go ahead with rate hikes

By GottaLaff

Here is what Anthem Blue Cross considers "appropriate":

An executive for the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross told state officials Tuesday that California's largest health insurer will go forward with much-criticized individual-policy rate hikes of as much as 39% once a two-month delay lapses May 1.

James Oatman, vice president of WellPoint Inc.'s consumer division, told the state Assembly's health committee that the premium increases, and the profit they generate, are appropriate despite wide criticism from consumers, regulators, members of Congress and the Obama administration.

Is showing them my middle finger appropriate, too? That's what they're doing to us, after all.

How's that health care reform obstruction coming along, GOP?

P.S. My family is one of the 39%ers.

Anthem Blue Cross broke law more than 700 times, official says

By GottaLaff

These are the people that are causing us to die, and pay the big bucks for the privilege:

California's largest for-profit health insurer violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policies to customers, the state's insurance commissioner said Monday.

Anthem Blue Cross could face fines of up to $7 million stemming from the alleged violations from 2006 to 2009. Commissioner Steve Poizner said that the insurer repeatedly failed to respond to state regulators in a "reasonable time" as they investigated complaints over the last year.

(Up to) $7 million dollars is a drop in the bucket to these thugs. They keep stealing our money, we keep getting sick.

Lose, lose.

Anthem Blue Cross to delay insurance rate hike amid criticism

By GottaLaff

Did my family just get a reprieve? Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease:

Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross will postpone its much-criticized plan to raise rates for some California residents who buy insurance on their own, after reaching a deal Saturday with state regulators.

Anthem's planned rate hike, which the state estimates would affect about 700,000 customers, averaged 25 percent and would have been as high as 39 percent for some.

Anthem Blue Cross of California, based in Thousand Oaks, agreed to postpone the increase from March 1 until May 1 so California could have outside experts review the company's complex and detailed plan filing, including data on the medical costs it expects to incur.

We're among the lucky "some" who got the "as high as 39%" notice recently. 39%. I finally won something, only in reverse.

Between health insurance and mortgage payments, we pay around $50K a year... just for those two big fat money gobblers (L.A. area real estate is not cheap).

At least our house payments go toward something that actually, you know, protects us and provides a safe haven.

Letter to Anthem Blue Cross

By GottaLaff

I got this via an e-mail this morning:

Commissioner Poizner has asked Anthem Blue Cross to wait on those rate increases, some that could be as high as 39 percent, until our actuary can take a look at their books.

Contained in the release is a copy of the letter Commissioner Poizner sent to the WellPoint brass.

I'd seen a piece about this in the L.A. Times, but the actual letter is worth a read:

News: 2010 Press Release

For Release: February 8, 2010

Media Calls Only: 916-492-3566

Insurance Commissioner Poizner Fights for Consumers, Calls for Postponement of Health Insurance Rate Increase for Anthem Patients and Policyholders

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, responding to a dramatic proposed rate hike by WellPoint's California affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross (Anthem), today called on WellPoint executives to postpone the rate increase, allowing the California Department of Insurance proper time for an independent actuarial review of the proposal.

"As a public benefit and to ensure that policyholders are not forced into financial hardship as a result of Anthem's proposed rate increases," said Commissioner Poizner, "I am asking that Anthem agree to postpone those rate increases until the Department's independent actuary completes his review."

Below is the text of the letter:

February 8, 2010

Ms. Angela F. Braly
President and Chief Executive Officer
WellPoint, Inc.
120 Monument Circle
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Mr. Larry C. Glasscock
Chairman of the Board
WellPoint, Inc.
120 Monument Circle
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Re: Anthem Blue Cross Individual Health Insurance Rates in California

Dear Ms. Braly and Mr. Glasscock:

WellPoint's California affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross ("Anthem"), has submitted to the California Department of Insurance ("Department") proposed rate increases of as much as 39 percent for individual health insurance sold in this State. Anthem announced it will implement the increases on March 1 of this year.

As you know, this is a time of unprecedented economic distress for consumers in America. The premium increases Anthem proposes for critically needed individual health insurance could have a devastating financial impact on hundreds of thousands of its policyholders in California. The Department has received numerous complaints from irate Californians describing how Anthem's proposed rate increases would cripple them financially.

At my direction, the Department is retaining an independent actuary to analyze Anthem's proposed rate increases. The actuary will carefully evaluate Anthem's submissions to ensure that Anthem's actuarial assumptions are justified and that Anthem pays out at least 70 cents of each premium dollar received for benefits, as required by California law. If the independent actuary concludes that Anthem's assumptions are unjustified and that Anthem will pay out less than 70 cents of the premium dollar for benefits, I will take immediate action to stop Anthem from charging the increased rates to California consumers.

As a public benefit and to ensure that policyholders are not forced into financial hardship as a result of Anthem's proposed rate increases, I am asking that Anthem agree to postpone those rate increases until the Department's independent actuary completes his review. Specifically, I ask that Anthem postpone implementation of its rate increases until May 1, 2010. If the independent actuary concludes that Anthem's rates are not actuarially justified and do not meet the 70 percent loss ratio requirement, I will take all legal action available to me to stop the rate increase.

Please let me know by February 15, 2010 whether Anthem will agree to protect consumers in California by postponing its individual health insurance rate increases until May 1, as discussed above.

Sincerely,

Steve Poizner

Here's an excerpt from the Times article:

In a rare step, the Obama administration called on California's largest for-profit insurer to justify its rate hikes, saying the increases were alarming at a time when subscribers face skyrocketing healthcare costs.

In a letter to Anthem's president, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius voiced serious concern over the higher premiums, which go into effect March 1 for many of the insurer's estimated 800,000 individual policyholders.

This hike is outrageous. Speaking for myself, we can barely make ends meet because of our gigantic insurance costs. I can't even imagine those who have it even worse than we do. And I shouldn't have to.

Yes, Rushpublics and a few so-called Dems, let's just maintain the status quo, or better yet, cozy up to Big Insurance even more. That'll win you hearts, minds, and votes.

Health care watch: White House visitor logs

By GottaLaff

The White House had visitors, as the logs reveal, and they were talking health care reform:

Top aides to President Barack Obama met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show. [...]

The records show a broad cross-section of the people most heavily involved in the health care debate, weighted heavily with those who want to overhaul the system.

Here are a few on the list:

• Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School, single payer advocate
• George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans
• Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Assoc.
• Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist who represents Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among others
• Billy Tauzin, head of PhRMA
• Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Assoc.
• Laird Burnett, a top lobbyist for insurer Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
• Joshua Ackil, a lobbyist whose clients include Intel, U.S. Oncology Inc., and Knoa Software Inc.
• Alissa Fox, a lobbyist with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, met March 31 with Peter Orszag
• Mark Agrast, a lobbyist for the Center for American Progress Action Fund
• Amador "Dean" Aguillen, a former aide to Nancy Pelosi who is now with Ogilvy Government Relations, where he lobbies for clients including pharmaceutical companies
• Merribel Ayres, a lobbyist who appears to focus on environmental issues such as energy and climate change

There is much more information on these visitors and others here.

Blue Cross Blue Shield execs used policyholder $ for parties, bonuses, more

By GottaLaff

Why we need a public option right now:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota used premium payments to fund $15 million in employee bonuses, cover $35,000 for a retirement party and pay for other questionable expenses, according to a state audit released Tuesday.

Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said he ordered the company to make changes after insurance examiners found inappropriate or excessive expenses paid with policyholders' dollars. He said the nearly inch-thick report raised questions about compensation, travel policies, investments and severance packages.

Hamm said the report showed "a lack of judgment" by board members and senior management. It was the first audit of the nonprofit company since 2004. [...]

Company officials said Tuesday that changes were already being made when Hamm ordered the audit in March, following criticism of a sales managers' trip to the Grand Cayman Islands that cost $238,000. The company's chief executive at the time, Mike Unhjem, was fired later that month. [...]

Hamm said that of the $418 million in the company's administrative expenses over the past five years, the audit found "millions and millions of dollars in excessive expenses."

The report said that premium payments funded nearly $15 million in employee bonuses that were almost assured regardless of performance, a $3.5 million investment in a hotel in Fargo and sales reward trips to resorts totaling $1.2 million.

In one case, the audit found that $34,814 was spent for a party for a retiring vice president.

Yep, the Rushpublics have nailed it. We have the bestest health care system in the whole wide world. A public option would ruin everything.

Blue Cross hits Michigan customers with 22% rate hike

By GottaLaff

Public option anyone?

In the past few days, 114,000 Michigan households have received bad-news letters from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, socking individual health insurance subscribers with premium increases averaging 22%, effective Oct. 1. [...]

But the chief culprits in the saga of Michigan's skyrocketing cost of individual health insurance are our hapless state legislators in Lansing, who refuse to address the havoc wreaked by rising unemployment and corporate cutbacks in health care benefits.

In just the past two years, the number of under-65 individual subscribers has grown by 59,000, or 96%, at Blue Cross, the nonprofit "insurer of last resort" in Michigan. Private for-profit insurers tend to cherry-pick younger, healthier consumers, driving older and less-healthy people to Blue Cross if they have no employer-provided group coverage.

State law requires Blue Cross to offer insurance to anyone, but it also demands that the company not lose money on its insurance products. Therein lies the rub: Blue Cross lost $133 million last year on individual subscribers. [...]

But Attorney General Mike Cox warned that a Blue Cross-backed bill would weaken regulatory oversight, and legislators decided the matter was too complex to resolve in a hurry. [...]

Well, it's now September and virtually nothing has happened except that Blue Cross asked for a 56% rate hike to cover mounting losses, which Cox and other adversaries wrestled down to 22% in negotiations.

What a bargain, huh?