Health Insurance Industry Moves To Halt Rescission Practices Ahead Of Health Reform Requirements

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Breast Cancer
Article Date: 30 Apr 2010 - 3:00 PDT

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America's Health Insurance Plans President and CEO Karen Ignagni -- the health insurance industry's top executive -- on Wednesday pledged that insurers would halt rescissions of customers' health policies when they get sick, Politico reports. Although the new health reform law (PL 111-148) includes a provision that enforces a federal ban on rescissions, it is not scheduled to take effect until September (Frates/Haberkorn, Politico, 4/28).

The announcement came one day after eight House Democratic leaders sent a letter to seven major insurers calling for a voluntary end to rescissions. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius this week also criticized insurers for the practice, saying that sick customers need coverage the most. The stepped up pressure on the industry follows a Reuters report last week that WellPoint had canceled women's policies after they were diagnosed with breast cancer (Women's Health Policy Report, 4/28).

On Wednesday, BlueCross BlueShield Association, Humana and UnitedHealth Group followed WellPoint's earlier announcement that they would stop canceling their customers' policies, except in cases of fraud or intentional material misrepresentation (Politico, 4/28). UnitedHealth said it would immediately halt the practice, BCBSA said it would end the practice next month and Humana said that it already has a policy in place that limits rescissions to fraudulent cases, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The House Democrats' letter also requested third-party independent reviews of rescission cases. UnitedHealth said that it would do so "in the near term," while WellPoint and Humana said they already conduct such reviews (Murphy, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 4/28).

Aetna and Assurant said they would halt rescissions before the September deadline, but they did not provide a specific timeline, according to Reuters (Heavey, Reuters, 4/28).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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