I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The state Insurance Division may reverse last month’s controversial approval of a Blue Cross Blue Shield New Mexico health insurance rate hike settlement, Public Regulation Commission (PRC) Chairman David King has told The Independent.
Interim state Insurance Superintendent Tom Rushton has been asked to rescind his predecessor’s approval of the 21.3 percent rate increase, King said.
“We’re asking him to go back and look at it again,” King said. “I feel strongly we should do that. He can vacate the order and they can go back and take public input, and make sure an audit of the thing is done.”
In an apparent sign of support for the move, Attorney General Gary King has asked that Rushton be recused from further involvement should the rate increase case be reopened, PRC Chairman David King said.
Gary and David King are first cousins. The Independent was unable to reach AG Gary King for comment, Wednesday.
Rushton, who served until last month as Deputy Insurance Superintendent, had helped negotiate a weekend rate hike settlement with the insurer just ahead of a scheduled public hearing, provoking outrage among policyholders and PRC commissioners.
Commissioners had ordered then-superintendent Morris “Mo” Chavez to hold public hearings before approving any rate hike.
But Rushton and Insurance Division staff, AG staff, complainant Jody Neal-Post, and Blue Cross Blue Shield attorneys settled on a rate increase of 21.3 percent during a weekend settlement. Commissioner Jason Marks condemned the move as a “back room deal,” provoking an angry response from Chavez, who later resigned.
Rushton has said he felt an even higher rate increase was justified, based on the insurer’s self-described economic hardships in the state.
“He’s a good man but it just wouldn’t be appropriate,” David King said of Rushton’s overseeing a reconsideration of last month’s rate hike settlement. “He shouldn’t be the hearing person.”
Another hearing officer from Division staff has been designated for the case, King said.
PRC Interim Chief of Staff Johnny Montoya is scheduled to appear before commissioners Thursday for an agenda action item regarding “health insurance rate reviews by Thomas Rushton,” immediately before another action item entitled “recruitment of Superintendent of Insurance.”
Chavez resigned in the face of public anger over his approval of the weekend settlement.
Commissioners asked about Chavez’s resignation would not confirm or deny rumors that they had asked for him to step down. But Commissioner Jason Marks said it had been “time for a change” at the Insurance Division.
Power play?
PRC commissioners’ push to reverse the Blue Cross Blue Shield NM rate hike may be part of a larger PRC power play to change how health insurance rates are regulated in New Mexico.
King has joined calls to give the PRC more oversight of the Insurance Division. Currently, appeals of Insurance Division decisions go to district court rather than the Commission.
Changing that may require a new state law, but King said he believes legislators and the next governor would likely support such a move in light of headlines over the Blue Cross Blue Shield NM case.
Commissioners favor different levels of involvement in health insurance rates. Marks favors automatic full Commission involvement and public hearings whenever rate increases exceed 10 percent, a threshold Jerome Block, Jr said he would also support. King supports Commission review and public hearings only for rate change appeals.
Describing Blue Cross Blue Shield’s failure to disclose some financial documents requested during the rate hike negotiations as “outrageous,” King also called for a third-party audit of the insurer.
Commissioners King, Marks and Block all want to investigate Blue Cross Blue Shield NM’s virtual monopoly as an individual health insurance provider in much of the state, they have told The Independent.
“It’s a little mystifying to me why they have 75 to 80 percent of the market,” King said. “Are we not allowing free competition? They’re a nonprofit but they pay their top guys pretty good. All that has to be looked at. How much of the increase is going to big executive salaries, all that, just like we do with utilities.”
As part of last month’s rate hike settlement, Blue Cross Blue Shield NM had agreed not to pull out of the state’s rural areas. In some parts of the state, it is the only insurer available to individuals who buy their own health insurance.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield NM rate hike affected approximately 40,000 New Mexicans who buy their own health insurance from the company. The Insurance Division had approved annual rate hikes requested by Blue Cross Blue Shield NM every year since 2004, cumulatively driving up some individual policyholders’ rates by 150 percent, The Independent found.
The Independent has submitted a public records request to the Insurance Division for the insurer’s group and employer-provided rate histories.
Rushton did not return calls Wednesday.
