Saturday, November 10, 2007

Health insurer rewards dropping sick policyholders.

ThinkProgress.org: Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc., one of the largest health insurers in California, “set goals and paid bonuses” for employees “based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.” Between 2000 and 2006, the company “avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies” while paying “its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies.”

UPDATE - From LA TIMES: Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders. One of the state’s largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.

Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.

Health Net had sought to keep the documents secret even after it was forced to produce them for the hearing, arguing that they contained proprietary information and could embarrass the company. But the arbitrator in the case, former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Cianchetti, granted a motion by lawyers for The Times, opening the hearing to reporters and making public all documents produced for it. More

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