State Hearing on Blue Cross
Victoria Colliver
San Francisco Chronicle
State regulators will hold a public hearing today in Los Angeles to investigate criticisms that have surfaced about Blue Cross of California since the 2004 acquisition of its parent company by a Midwestern health insurer.
Officials from the state Department of Managed Health Care will hear complaints about premium increases, canceled policies, physician reimbursement rates and transfers of money out of California after the $16.4 billion purchase of Blue Cross's parent, WellPoint Health Networks Inc., by Anthem Inc.
The company, based in Indiana, now uses the name WellPoint Inc. and is the nation's largest health insurer.
The deal was controversial from the start. The Department of Insurance initially withheld approval but signed off after WellPoint agreed to a series of conditions, including a promise not to finance the transaction, including large executive severance packages, with premiums from California policyholders.
Today's hearing was prompted in large part by the more than 1,600 complaints against Blue Cross received by the Department of Managed Health Care over the last three years.
August 7, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Blog Reactions
Save to del.icio.us | Share on Facebook
Trackback
Trackback URL for this entry:
http://itsourhealthcare.org/blog-mt1/mt-tb.fcgi/198
