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.
Good news! We’ve been identified as a “promising local news site” by the Reynolds Journalism Institute and we’re working with researchers there who want to learn more about what we do and what other local news sites do.…
On last Friday’s episode of KNME’s New Mexico in Focus, “The Line” opinion panel discussed a recent case in which three Farmington men were charged with a hate crime after allegedly branding a swastika into the arm of a…
Every Thursday around 5:45 p.m., writers from The Independent talk about the big stories of the week with Sarah Gustavus on KUNM 89.9 FM. This week, senior writer Trip Jennings discusses how state officials are preparing to create health insurance…
Tonight on the KUNM evening news, The Independent’s Trip Jennings spoke with reporter Sarah Gustavus about how New Mexico regulators are dealing with rate hike requests from health insurance companies and public utilities. In case you missed it you…
The New Mexico Attorney General’s office has failed to confirm the Clovis News Journal’s contention that three Curry County commissioners held an illegal meeting in November, but did warn commissioners to be more cautious in the future.
Interim PRC Chief of Staff Johnny Montoya has withdrawn his name from consideration for the permanent chief of staff position, and will return to his old job as compliance director for the Insurance Division. Montoya wants to work with the new chief of staff to implement an ethics and transparency reform agenda for PRC staff, he told The Independent, saying “It’s no secret the PRC has a public perception problem.”
Insurance Superintendent Morris Chavez
State Insurance Superintendent Morris Chavez resigned Tuesday morning, following intense criticism for his approval last month of a 21.3 percent rate increase for Blue Cross Blue Shield New Mexico individual policyholders without any public hearings.
But last month’s contentious rate hike was nothing new.
The state Public Regulation Commission (PRC)’s Insurance Division has approved rate increases for Blue Cross Blue Shield individual health insurance policies every year since 2004, according to state Insurance Division documents obtained by The Independent.
The Independent sought comment from Chavez Tuesday morning, only to learn staff was scrambling to announce his resignation.
In several cases, the rate hikes were comparable to this year’s increase, exceeding 20 percent.
Cumulatively, the increases approved each year since 2004 have pushed up premiums for Blue Cross Blue Shield NM policyholders by as much as 154 percent, Insurance Division records show.
In 2009 alone, rate increases for the company’s Blue Choice and Blue Choice Plus policies increased 19.6 percent and 24 percent, respectively. The company’s NM Major Medical policies saw a 2009 rate increase of 24.7 percent and Number One policy rates increased 22 percent in 2009.
The financial impact of rate increases on policyholders can be profound, policyholders told The Independent.
Moya Melody and her husband Kim Radsliff, Santa Fe residents, now spend 30 percent of their income on their Blue Cross Blue Shield NM policy, Melody said.
Last month’s rate increase brought their montly premiums up to $1,305 a month, Melody said. When they first bought their Blue Cross Blue Shield NM policy in 2004, they paid $562, or 16 percent of their household income, Melody said.
Two PRC commissioners want more transparency
Health insurance rate increases have not been contested before in New Mexico, PRC Commissioner Jason Marks told The Independent.
“The only insurance rate increase appealed … in the past decade was an appeal two years ago over title insurance,” Marks said.
PRC Commissioners knew about the 20 percent Blue Cross rate increase in 2009, but had not been aware that the Insurance Division had routinely approved rate increases since 2004, Marks said.
“We knew about the 20 percent (Blue Cross) rate increase last year, but this 150 percent increase (since 2004) is news to me,” Marks said.
In the future, health insurance rate increases exceeding 10 percent should trigger public hearings and full Commission review, Marks said.
Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. agreed.
“It’s unfortunate the Insurance Division has treated rate increases as a routine or typical process,” Block told The Independent. “These aren’t typical times. New Mexicans are struggling. I’d like to see the 10 percent threshold serve as a red flag for public hearings and Commission review.”
The Commission also needs to investigate why Blue Cross Blue Shield NM is the only individual health insurance provider in much of rural New Mexico, Marks said.
Blue Cross Blue Shield NM spokeswoman Becky Kenny did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the rate increases. Nor did Kenny respond to requests for information regarding executive salaries.
Kenny refused to disclose the Blue Cross Blue Shield NM’s tax filings, and would not say whether or not the not-for-profit would provide tax filings to policyholders. Blue Cross Blue Shield NM is a division of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a mutual insurance company that is owned by its customers. Profits must be reinvested in the business or given to customers.
HCSC’s chief executive officer was paid $10.6 million in salary and bonuses in 2008, according to documents filed with the Insurance Division by Consumers Union attorney Sondra Roberto.
State Insurance Superintendent Morris J. “Mo” Chavez resigned Tuesday morning.
“After careful deliberation with my family, I have decided to tender my resignation as Superintendent of Insurance effective close of business today, May 4, 2010,” Chavez said in a two-sentence resignation letter addressed to PRC Commission Chairman David King. “It has been an honor to serve the citizens of New Mexico.”
Chavez had come under fire for approving, without public hearings, a Blue Cross Blue Shield NM individual health insurance rate hike of 24.6 percent. The increase was subsequently reduced to 21.3 percent.
Since Chavez took office in October 2006, he approved several health insurance rate increases, all without public hearings.
More …
In a guest opinion column in the Albuquerque Journal Thursday, former Bernalillo Town manager Stephen Jerge argued that fired Town engineer Ramesh Narasimhan’s engineering is not to blame for Bernalillo’s malfunctioning drinking water treatment…
A state Environment Department official disputes a former Bernalillo engineer’s claim that arsenic levels in the Town wells climbed sharply over recent years.
Former Bernalillo engineer Ramesh Narasimhan told The Independent and Town officials in February that…
New Mexico Secretary of New Mexico Indian Affairs Alvin Warren will hold a press conference April 28 at the All Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque to launch the first national anti-methamphetamine advertising campaign aimed at Indian Country. More …
The state Human Services Division (HSD) and Attorney General’s office will sign a new memo of understanding about data sharing and the coordination of Medicaid fraud investigations, officials at both agencies told The Independent Monday.
The AG’s office
New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act is meant to help ensure public involvement and to prevent backroom deals in state and local government, but violations of the law are widespread, an investigation by The Independent has found. School boards, universities, town councils, county and state commissions, and boards across the state have broken the law, casting a shroud of secrecy over government officials’ deliberations and bargaining.
A dairy industry group is claiming up to half of New Mexico’s dairies could be driven out of business by new regulations proposed by the state Environment Department, the Associated Press and KOB reported Sunday. The claims come…
Health care reform has tanning salon owners seeing red in New Mexico, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported Monday.
The reform law’s new 10 percent federal tax on tanning services kicks in July 1. The number of tanning salons in…
Despite a court order, the Jemez Mountain School District still has not allowed the Rio Grande SUN to inspect all checks written between 1999 and 2002 by former District business manager Kathy Borrego, the SUN reports.
New Mexico’s Eastern Plains could see a second Dust Bowl caused by climate change, USA Today reported Friday. Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus is warning that changing precipitation patterns caused by climate change could be “catastrophic” for northeastern New…
We are thrilled to find that the readers of Albuquerque’s Weekly Alibi have named The New Mexico Independent among the top three local Web sites in the 2010 Best of Burque poll. W00t! Thanks, Alibi readers! The first place…
Bernalillo has suspended plans to construct a $9.2 million arsenic treatment system at two of the Town’s four wells, Mayor Jack Torres announced this week. Town engineers are now attempting to fix problems at new treatment facilities already installed at the two other wells, he said.
New Mexico Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Korsmo has ordered the U.S. Navy Veterans Association charity to stop fundraising in New Mexico, the St. Petersburg Times reported today. The paper’s investigative series on the charity found that telemarketers and fund-raising companies hired by the group keep up to 90 percent of the money raised from donors, and that most of the organization’s offices around the nation are little more than mail drops. The group’s members, officers and auditors could not be found by reporters.
The New Mexico chapter is listed as donating $132,506 in food, shelter, clothing, direct cash assistance and medical and dental care to indigent veterans and families in New Mexico, according to IRS records obtained by The Independent. However, no details are offered about where exactly the money and donations were spent, or what hospitals or health clinics were paid. More …
