Critics rip Blue Cross at hearing

"I'm asking you to regulate so we don't have outlandish rates," he said. "Leverage has gone from California to an Indiana-based company."

The panel also was criticized for allowing Blue Cross President Brian Sassi to speak before the public did. Drawing applause, Jerry Flanagan, a patient advocate with the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights, said Blue Cross should hear and respond to everyone, not just the department.

"When you have a public meeting," he said, "it's important that the public speaks first."

Since the merger, the state department has fielded more than 1,600 complaints from healthcare providers and consumers about problems with Blue Cross, Montesino said. During the first six months of 2007, the department received 85 percent more Blue Cross provider termination requests than in all of 2005.

One of the questions the department is scrutinizing, he said, is why so many providers are threatening to leave the Blue Cross network since the merger.

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