Health insurers shifting costs ahead of law: report

Source: Reuters

Health insurers shifting costs ahead of law: report
Reuters

By Susan Heavey Susan Heavey – 1 hr 11 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some of the largest U.S. health insurers are changing their accounting practices to book administration costs as medical costs in an attempt to circumvent new industry reforms, according to a U.S. Senate panel's report released on Thursday.

Under the healthcare law passed in March, insurers must adjust their spending habits to meet new requirements. For example, large group plans must spend at least 85 cents of every premium dollar paid to them on actual medical care as opposed to administrative costs, while individual and small group plans must spend 80 cents.

Wall Street closely watches such spending levels, known as medical-loss ratios, or MLRs, as a sign of potential profits. Major health insurance stock indexes fell after the report.

"The insurance industry is beginning to consider the financial impact of the new federally required (medical) loss ratio requirements, including questionable changes in their accounting practices," the Democratic-led Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation said in a statement.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100415/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_insurers

I wonder if there are any real teeth in the new law. or it will just turn out to be a paper shuffle.

and they haven't issued that rule yet. So these changes if mean could mean nothinw if the new rules just reverses the changes they've made.

in the health care industry.

All those people that were out on the democratic & progressive web sites cheering about their team's win when the House passed the Senate bill -- are you cheering NOW????

were for single payer and knew this bill was a load of crap. :shrug:

that allows the Sec. of Health to determine
as to what will be allowable in classifying
medical cost and what won't. The Health Insurance
isn't allowed to simply make that determination.

Of course, that's not in the article,
since the entire point is to make the
health care bill appear not to be able to
do what it has set out to do.

There's a sucker born every minute,
which means that there are many amongs
our mids.

any "loopholes" they come up with.

companies will continue to do what they want. The insurance companies are not stupid. If they didn't think they could get away with these tricks they wouldn't be doing it. The real suckers are the ones who bought this phony so-called HCR bill.

:eyes: