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.
Controversy has surrounded the state’s approval of a 21.3 percent rate hike on 40,000 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico health insurance policyholders, but the state Division of Insurance approved Presbyterian Insurance Company’s even larger, 24 percent health insurance rate hike in 2009, Division records and staff confirm.
The Presbyterian health insurance rate hike of 24 percent was approved in October 2009 and went into effect Jan. 1.
Like Blue Cross Blue Shield N.M., Presbyterian has increased rates on some customers every year since 2004, Division records show. But between 2004 and 2010, Presbyterian’s rate hikes totaled 88 percent, considerably lower than the 150 percent jumps seen by many Blue Cross policyholders in New Mexico.
Blue Cross has come under fire for allegedly failing to provide enough information to justify raising rates, but Presbyterian gave even less information— just over 30 pages, compared to the more than 100 pages Blue Cross filed.
The Presbyterian rate filing also claimed an even higher loss trend rate, 11 percent per year, than Blue Cross’s claimed 10 percent.
An independent expert hired by the Attorney General’s office has testified Blue Cross’s 10 percent trend rate was exaggerated.
At a division hearing on the Blue Cross rate hike Wednesday, Blue Cross attorney Paul Bardacke cited the Presbyterian rate increase as evidence Blue Cross’s hike was reasonable.
“It is in line with a 24 percent increase the state approved for Presbyterian – Blue Cross’s major competitor in the New Mexico market – just last year,” Bardacke said.
Presbyterian’s rate hikes in 2004, 2005 and 2006 targeted child-only policies, records show.
All individual policies saw increases in 2007 and 2008, records show, averaging 11.2 percent and 24 percent respectively.
“Many of our members saw no increase,” Presbyterian spokeswoman Elizabeth Brophy told The Independent.
Following its investigation into Blue Cross’s health insurance rate history, The Independent requested in June Division of Insurance records on other health insurance companies’ rate histories, including Presbyterian’s. Division staff were unable to locate Presbyterian’s rate history records until Wednesday evening.
Presbyterian Insurance Company is owned by Presbyterian Healthcare Services (PHS).
