WellPoint shares drop following second quarter Medicare spending analysis

Shares of the health insurance company with the highest enrollment, WellPoint Inc., fell dramatically after the insurer announced that its second quarter medical care costs spiked following an increase in its Medicare patients. For the second time this year, the Indianapolis-based insurer has increased its annual forecast following the increase in sales. The enrollment with WellPoint increased by 2.1 percent, reaching 34.2 million, primarily from a rise in elderly and disabled Medicare members. Approximately 75 percent of the new enrollees with Medicare had come from competitors that had withdrawn from…

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California health insurer holds off on rate increase

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.…

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WellPoint Warns Health Insurance Applicants in 10 States Regarding Security Breach

Health Insurance

In July, 2010, America’s largest insurance provider found that a website security error may have placed customers at risk. People in ten states were exposed to this security breach. The site malfunction appears to have resulted from recent WellPoint website updates performed by an outside contractor. WellPoint’s system is regularly used by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield customers. In this case, the error involved the applications for health insurance processed through the website. It was discovered that data from approximately 940 applications was exposed. Using caution, WellPoint notified 470,000 of…

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