Consumer Law

Health Insurers to Cruel Rescission Policies: ?We Wish We Could Quit You?Not!?

By Andy Hoffman

We?ve talked before about lawsuits that have arisen out of an insidious little practice called ?rescission,? whereby health insurance companies drop patients with serious illnesses then back charge them for treatment they?ve already received.

Well, earlier this week, executives from WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. (three of the nation?s largest health insurers) told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that as far as they?re concerned, rescission is here to stay.  This, despite the Subcommittee?s finding  ?that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.?

All told, the companies subjected 20,000 customers to rescission, pocketing $300 million over a five-year period.

"Talk about tone deaf," said Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive who now counsels companies as a consultant.  Laszewski and other experts said the companies? explicit commitment to continuing their rescission policies could undermine the insurance industry?s efforts to influence the broader health care debate.

To that end, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) said "This is precisely why we need a public [health insurance] option," to force private companies into treating consumers fairly ?or risk losing them.?

Jerry Flanagan, a patient advocate with Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, agreed.  "When insurance companies go under oath and admit they are canceling innocent patients when they get sick?It opens the way for a public option to hold the companies in check."

Full post as published by ThePopTort on June 19, 2009 (boomark / email).