Daily Health Care News - 4/15/10
Posted on April 15th, 2010 by Jason Rosenbaum in News Clips
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NEWS
List rates or pay, state tells insurers - Boston Globe
State regulators yesterday demanded that health insurers submit revised April 1 premium rates for tens of thousands of individuals and small businesses by 3 p.m. tomorrow or face stiff fines.
Cigna CEO: Move Beyond Obamacare - Forbes
David Cordani, who became Cigna's chief executive in January, says quite enough time and effort was been spent on the recently signed health legislation, even if he doesn't like the results. "It took a year of the country's energy. It's now time to move on," he said in an interview.
New Health Law Expands High-Risk Coverage - NPR
When Miles Owyang was born, six weeks premature, the doctors determined that he had a heart ailment. It was nothing serious, just something to monitor.
New Long-Term Care Insurance Will Provide Flexible Cash Benefits - Kaiser Health News
Millie Toda of Toledo, Ohio, takes cares of her husband Richard, 83, who is severely disabled from Parkinson’s Disease. She’s grateful that with the help of government-paid home health aides and adult day care, he’s able to continue living at home rather than move to a nursing home.
Health care reform: Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says office cannot issue an opinion on law - KTHV
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says his office cannot issue an opinion on whether the federal health care reform law is constitutional.
Sebelius: Gov't will work to close minority health gap - USA Today
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday that she is developing a national plan of action that would focus for the first time on reducing health care disparities between minority and white populations.
AP-GfK Poll: Jump in opposition to health care law - AP
Opposition to President Barack Obama's health care law jumped after he signed it — a clear indication his victory could become a liability for Democrats in this fall's elections.
Waxman Backs Away From Challenge To Big Corporations On Health Costs - Kaiser Health News
A new congressional staff report has defused a standoff between Democrats and large corporations over losses the firms anticipate because of the new health overhaul law.
Obama picking up fundraising steam - LA Times
Now that his healthcare overhaul is complete, President Obama is raising campaign money at a ferocious pace, tapping into an energized corps of Democratic donors in quiet, less publicized forays to dinners and receptions embedded in official presidential trips.
OPINION
POLL: 59% Of Those In Favor Of Repeal Want Congress To Pursue The Public Option - Think Progress
Republicans have characterized the Democrats’ push to pass health care reform and their subsequent dismissal of GOP efforts to repeal the legislation as “arrogant,” pointing to opinion polls which show that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the new health care law and support its repeal. But if Republicans want to govern based on public opinion, they should be careful what they ask for.
WellPoint to Implement Federal Rescission Reforms Early – Effective May 1
WellPoint First Insurer to Implement Reforms Ahead of Schedule
(Indianapolis, April 27, 2010) WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP), the nation’s largest health insurer, announced today that it will implement federal legislation regarding individual market rescissions effective May 1.
This is well ahead of the effective date contained in the legislation. WellPoint is the first insurer to implement the provision. This move builds on WellPoint’s leadership in the early implementation of reform by extending coverage to dependents up to age 26.
Rescissions, while rarely used, are one process insurers employ to reduce fraud and protect members. The standard contained in the federal legislation requires insurers not to rescind policies except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact.
WellPoint welcomes greater uniformity among insurers in this area. In June 2006, WellPoint was the first insurer to announce the establishment of a variety of changes to its rescission practices in an effort to ensure that rescissions are handled as accurately and appropriately as possible. WellPoint followed that in 2008 by being the first in the industry to offer a binding, external, independent third-party review process for rescissions, a move that was cited at the time as a model for the industry and goes beyond the requirements in the federal law.
“Our goal is to make reform work for our members and for the country,” said Angela Braly, Chief Executive Officer of WellPoint. “There have been a lot of misrepresentations and inaccuracies in recent days that have caused confusion among our members and among the public generally about our policies in this area. We think today’s announcement will go a long way toward bringing greater clarity.”
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About WellPoint, Inc.
WellPoint works to simplify the connection between Health, Care and Value. We help to improve the health of our communities, deliver better care to members, and provide greater value to our customers and shareholders. WellPoint is the nation’s largest health benefits company, with more than 33 million members in its affiliated health plans. As an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas, WellPoint does business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield or Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield (in the New York service areas). WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at http://www.wellpoint.com.
Contact:
Kristin Binns
Kristin.binns@wellpoint.com
917-697-7802