Four health insurers led by Bloomfield’s Cigna Corp. have asked the Obama administration to exempt medical plans they sell to Americans overseas from requirements in the 2010 health-care law, saying a denial may imperil about 1,100 U.S. jobs, Bloomberg News reports.
Exemption requests have come from Cigna, the world’s largest provider of expatriate health plans,; UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn., with Hartford operations; Hartford’s Aetna Inc.; and New York-based MetLife Inc., the people said.
The threat to move management of the plans to offshore locations is outlined in a Sept. 15 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius signed by 15 members of Congress. In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg, the lawmakers urge quick action to save the jobs. Almost half the firings may be at Cigna’s international unit in Claymont, Delaware, said a person familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified because they are private.
The insurers want to avoid a rule that they spend as much as 85 cents of each premium dollar on care, as well as mandates on claims denials and marketing language, said three people familiar with the negotiations who aren’t authorized to speak publicly. A ruling may come this year, one of the people said.
“We are acutely aware of, and sensitive to, the special circumstances of expatriate plans,” said Steve Larsen, director of Health and Human Services Department’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, in an e-mail. He said the agency “will address the methodology for 2012 and beyond in future rulemaking.” He declined to provide further details.
Americans who are sent overseas by employers rely on expatriate plans sold individually and to multinational corporations to cover their health care.
Mariann Caprino, a Cigna spokeswoman, confirmed that the insurer is seeking exemptions. She said a March briefing paper sent by Cigna to Congress refers to the need “to begin writing expatriate policies overseas as a competitive necessity, thus moving American jobs overseas.”
While Cigna doesn’t break out revenue for its expatriate operations, Caprino said those plans, managed out of Delaware and California, serve about 800,000 workers globally. The company’s international division had $2.4 billion in sales in 2010, or about 10 percent of revenue.
“We’re not looking for special treatment,” Caprino said in a telephone interview. “We contend that Congress never meant for the law to apply to expatriate health plans.” The company is working “diligently” to retain the U.S. jobs, she said.
Bloomberg provides international health-care benefits to approximately 200 employees through Cigna International.
Aetna spokesman Mohit Ghose said the company continues to “actively seek relief” from the same provisions in the law that have been problematic from its enactment. He referred to a Jan. 31 letter sent to HHS when the company sought the health- spending waiver that expires at the end of the year. He declined to comment on whether the insurer would be move jobs overseas.
The letter said the mandate ‘would put American insurers at a disadvantage to foreign insurers.
