One of the dozen health insurance carriers for Covered California has been suspended for lack of a state license. Alameda Alliance for Health has been removed from the Affordable Care Act marketplace in California "until further notice." The Bay area non-profit, which provides Medi-Cal managed care plans, failed to win approval with its application for a "material modification" of its license that would allow commercial insurance ... (More)
Insurer quality ratings due in 2014
October 26, 2013 2 Comments
The board of California's health insurance marketplace voted to display carrier quality ratings in next year's open enrollment period. The Covered California management wanted to wait until October 2015. The state Obamacare exchange made negative headlines in the past week for not offering quality ratings of health plans it handles. While not news -- the ratings decision was addressed and explained last summer -- Kaiser Permanente ... (More)
Blue Shield quits Monterey County
September 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
Blue Shield is pulling out of Monterey County, a region in which it was expected to provide coverage to individuals under the Affordable Care Act. Blue Shield cited a lack of providers willing to accept its compensation rates. The state Legislature considered several bills this year seeking to ease the physician crunch. "We could not get providers to agree to more reasonable rates, and therefore we chose to exclude Monterey County ... (More)
Anthem faces small-biz challenge
June 14, 2013 Leave a Comment
Taking on an old rival, California's insurance commissioner has recommended that Anthem be excluded from the state's new marketplace for small-business health coverage. Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones cited three "unreasonable" rate increases in 2013 for small- business health plans from Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company. "Anthem has engaged in a pattern of excessive and unjustifiable rate increases for its ... (More)
Study: Individual claim costs to soar
March 27, 2013 Leave a Comment
Medical insurance claims for individual policies in California will cost insurers 62 percent more by 2017, a risk-management group predicts. The figure is near the top of cost increases seen for each state under the Affordable Care Act. The costs do not necessarily mean premiums would increase by that amount because numerous other factors come into play, the Society of Actuaries said in its report of March 26. Still, claims costs ... (More)
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