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.
New Mexico was one of 45 states to win $1 million Monday to help crack down on health insurance premium increases, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced.
New Mexico plans to use the federal dollars to strengthen how the state reviews health insurers’ requests to raise premium rates, a process that has come under considerable fire in recent months.
One idea New Mexico already is considering is to create a Consumer and Business Services Bureau within the state Division of Insurance that would be responsible for approving rates for the individual, small group and portability health insurance markets, according to a HHS news release issued Monday.
The state also is contemplating making insurers’ applications easier for the public to inspect by seeking “legislation to make rate filings public information and require the Division to post health insurance premium filings on its website once they are deemed complete,” the release said.
The federal money given to the states Monday is meant to help beef up their oversight of the health insurance industry and to “restore some basic fairness” for consumers who find themselves battling a perennial rise in the cost of health care, Sibelius said during a mid-morning conference call with reporters to announce the federal grants.
The vast majority of states applied for the federal money to help beef up oversight, Sibelius and Angoff said. Only five states didn’t submit applications, the two said. They were Alaska, Wyoming, Iowa, Georgia and Minnesota
“These grants will enable some insurance departments to do what they’ve wanted to do but haven’t been able to do because of budgets,” said Jay Angoff, the director of HHS’ Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
