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.
A planned public hearing on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico‘s controversial health insurance rate hike may be delayed until September.
The company filed a motion July 2 with the state Insurance Division, saying the public hearing and division review of the rate hike should be delayed until the Supreme Court has ruled on the matter, because preparing for the public hearing would be time consuming and the court may toss the PRC’s decision to reverse approval of the hike.
Acting Insurance Superintendent Johnny Montoya had suspended approval for the rate hike June 23 and ordered the Division to reconsider the Blue Cross rate hike application.
Montoya also ordered a public hearing to be held August 25, at which Division staff will explain how the rate hike, which imposes an average 21.3 percent premium increase on 40,000 New Mexican policyholders, came to be approved.
That prompted Blue Cross Blue Shield NM to petition the state Supreme Court to throw out Montoya’s order. The Insurance Superintendent does not have the authority to rescind approval for a rate hike, the company argued in its Supreme Court petition.
“In the event the (Supreme Court) grants the relief sought in BCBSNM’s Petition for Writ, all of the time and expense of hearing preparation would be for naught,” the motion states.
The motion seeks a delay until September for the public hearing and rate increase review.
“The motion was not unexpected nor was it an unreasonable request,” Public Regulation Commission (PRC) spokesman Gerald Garner wrote in an e-mail to The Independent. “However, the superintendent has not made a decision on the matter.”
The motion was a delay tactic intended to avoid a public review of the justification for the rate hike, PRC commissioner Jason Marks told The Independent.
“I just don’t think they’re on strong legal grounds,” Marks said. “There’s no real harm to Blue Cross from putting out the facts to support their case. How is it irreparable harm to go to a hearing and hear some facts?”
Policyholders continue to pay increased rates
When Montoya suspended the Division’s approval of the rate hike settlement last month, he nevertheless ordered that policyholders must continue to pay the increased rate. Asked Tuesday why he had done that, Montoya told The Independent that there is a possibility the review process will find the rate hike had been justified.
“I don’t want to put consumers at risk,” Montoya said. “They could wind up paying back premiums in a lump sum.”
Weekend ‘back room deal’ prompted power struggle
The PRC, which oversees the Division, had ordered public hearings for the rate hike application in March, but Division staff, Attorney General’s office staff and Blue Cross Blue Shield attorneys struck a weekend settlement deal in April, before a scheduled public hearing.
The weekend settlement outraged commissioners and policyholders alike, prompting a power struggle over health insurance rate setting between the semi-autonomous Insurance Division and the PRC.
Marks denounced the settlement as “a back room deal.”
Annual rate increases approved without documentation of figures, ‘unjustified’
The Insurance Division has approved Blue Cross Blue Shield rate hikes every year since 2004, despite corporate reserves exceeding $6 billion — without requesting documentation for the insurer’s claimed loss and expense figures, an investigation by The Independent found.
An independent expert hired by the Attorney General’s office concluded Blue Cross Blue Shield NM had inflated its losses and the rate hike was not justified. But the AG’s office nevertheless signed off on the weekend settlement deal approving a rate hike.
