Medical Insurance Rate Increase Filing Clarified by Anthem Blue Cross
Posted on Tue, Aug 31, 2010
Last March, Anthem Blue Cross had filed rate increases with the CA Dept. of Insurance that was declined due to miscalculations on Anthem's part. Originally, medical insurance rates were expected to be increased by as much as 39%.
Since then, Anthem Blue Cross has revised and resubmitted their rates for October 1, 2010. These new medical insurance rates have been approved, and rates will be increased by 14% up to 20% for their members that were scheduled to have rate increases is March, April, May, June, July and August.
According to Anthem, they have said that there is a lot of misinformation in the media regarding their rate filings. They clarified that the miscalculations were mostly related to the way that they had estimated future medical costs, and that their original March rate filings met the requirements of CA law for 7 out of 8 of their products.
Going forward, Anthem has taken many steps to improve their internal rate review processes to make sure that their rate filings are accurate. They have enhanced the outside 3rd party evaluation, and have enforced a meticulous internal evaluation process by actuaries that are independent of Anthem Blue Cross's individual business. They have also been helping people to understand what goes into their rates, by publishing information on their website at www.anthem.com/ca, to improve transparency.
With these new rates, Anthem expects to lose at least $100 million in 2010, following another loss in revenue that occurred in 2009.