The state Insurance Department has disapproved Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s proposed rate increase for individual health insurance policies and cut ConnectiCare’s proposed increase in half.
Anthem, which was subject to a public hearing requested by Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri, has until Aug. 31 to file a new rate proposal. Meanwhile, ConnectiCare’s requested rate increase of 12.8 percent was reduced by regulators to 6.2 percent.
Anthem had requested rate increases averaging 12.5 percent for on and off-exchange health plans starting Jan. 1. The Anthem plans cover 66,200 Connecticut residents. ConnectiCare’s plans cover 27,500.
Following a June public hearing and an actuarial review by the Insurance Department, a hearing officer ruled that Anthem’s proposed increases were excessive. The department recommended changes to some of the key assumptions and projections Anthem used to calculate the rates.
Recommended changes included lowering Anthem’s proposed “attachment point,” which is the level of spending at which coinsurance kicks in. Regulators also recommended that Anthem lower its estimate of how much medical costs will increase in 2015, and that it tweak its pricing factor related to age and gender cost risks.
Attorney General George Jepsen and Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri said in a statement Tuesday that they will continue to pursue public hearings on rate filings when necessary.
The Insurance Department also instructed United Healthcare to revise downward its proposed rates for its individual market health plans. United would be new in 2015 to the state’s individual insurance exchange, Access Health CT.
Meanwhile, the department tweaked HealthyCT’s proposed 8.6 percent rate decrease to an 8.5 percent decrease.
