Tag: California health insurance company

California health insurance rebates to be sent out to small businesses

Health Insurance Refund

UnitedHealth is expected to issue $3.5 million in these refunds California health insurance giant, UnitedHealth, is the first in the state to declare the total amount in rebates that it will be issuing to small businesses due to the fact that its spending on medical care costs did not reach the 80 percent requirement under the healthcare reform laws. There will be approximately $3.5 million split among almost 4,400 small business across the state. The rebates will be received throughout the summer as the insurer also gets itself ready to…

Read More

Anthem Blue Cross faces lawsuit over size of deductibles for health insurance

Julie Campbell

Consumer Watchdog has filed a lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross, claiming that the insurer is using “bait and switch” tactics to increase the out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles which must be paid by some of their consumers. This is the second time in a period of eight months that the largest for-profit insurance company in California has faced a lawsuit over claims that its contracts with customers had been breached by mid-year deductible increases. In this most recent case, Consumer Watchdog alleges that over 100,000 policyholders have experienced a misrepresentation of…

Read More

Blue Cross Blue Shield of California to return millions of dollars to policyholders

H. Cutner

Last year, California health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that it would be returning more than $160 million in surplus profits to its 2 million policyholders. Amidst accusations of profiteering, the company has announced another wave of refunds that will total $283 million, which will begin being sent out in December of this year. Most of the rebates will come in the form of credit on insurance bills. The company notes that December’s refund will likely cut policyholder’s bills by at least half. Individual policyholders can expect to see…

Read More

First large insurance company is ceasing coverage of Avastin breast cancer drug

Julie Campbell

Blue Shield in California, which is a health insurance company with 3.2 million members… is the first among the large insurers in the company to announce that they will no longer be providing coverage for the breast cancer drug called Avastin, following a unanimous recommendation by a federal advisory committee that the Food and Drug Administration rescind the medication’s approval as a treatment for the disease, stating that patients were not helped by its use. That said, Avastin is still holding onto its approval, as commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg…

Read More

California health insurer holds off on rate increase

Nordstrom

WellPoint Inc., one of the nation’s top health insurers based in California, announced earlier this year that it would be raising premiums on individual policies by 16.4%. After increased pressure from state legislators and insurance commissioner Dave Jones, however, the insurer has proposed a new increase of no more than 9.8%. Furthermore, the company has heeded Jones’ call for delays on rate hikes and has announced that the increases will not take effect until July. According to Jones, the rate increases will affect more than 600,000 policyholders in the state.…

Read More