As I have mentioned before Anthem is a for-profit health insurance corporation. They are a corporation that prioritizes shareholders profits before their customers, hence the proposed 39% increase of monthly rates for almost 800,000 Californians, myself included. And if a proposed hike increase isn’t enough, it now seems that Anthem has broken the law up to 700 times. In the LA Times’ article, Anthem Breaks the Law 700 Times, it seems that,

“California’s largest for-profit health insurer violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policy provisions to customers.”

Another troublesome note from California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner,

“We believe there evidence to suggest there are serious issues with how Anthem Blue Cross pays claims,” Poizner said at a Sacramento news conference. “Most disturbing to us is that they don’t even respond” to the Department of Insurance “in a timely way.”

Of course Anthem released a statement of how they plan to comply with the investigation,

“As the largest insurer in California, our responsibility is to pay the many millions of claims on behalf of our members each year fairly, fully and promptly.”

Anthem Blue Cross could face up to fines of $7 million if these violations are true. Would a $7 million fine make Anthem change their ways of paying claims and how they treat their customers? I highly doubt it. $7 million is the cliche, drop in the bucket, for Anthem and their parent company Wellpoint. In 2009 Wellpoint increased their profits by $2.3 billion over the previous year. So it’s safe to say that Anthem and their parent company can afford a $7 million fine.

Since there aren’t regulations of any kind imposed on insurance corporations, Anthem can keep raising premiums, fail to pay claims and treat their customers like ATM machines. I wonder what else Anthem will do in their quest for another year of record breaking profits.

And remember Anthem = Assholes

Thanks for reading!

Posted on March 1, 2010 at 1:47 am
http://healthcareandme.com/?p=1427
http://healthcareandme.com/wp-trackback.php?p=1427
Categorised under : Misc.
Tagged with : Anthem , Assholes , Blue Cross of California , Health Insurance , Insurnace Commisoner , Premiums , President Barack Obama , Steve Poizner