The time clock is ticking for Regence BlueShield to respond to the major problems identified in a market conduct exam conducted by the Washington Insurance Commissioner’s office.
That exam, which took two years to complete, called into question Regence’s ability to pay claims, handle grievances, accept applications in time and coordinate benefits for people who have more than one insurance policy. Several of these problems resulted from the failure of its Facets system, which handles claims. The exam came up with similar findings for Asuris Northwest Health, a Regence affiliate, which also sells insurance policies in Washington state.
Regence has until Jan, 9 to explain – in detail – how these problems have been resolved and give state officials assurances they will not reoccur.
“We will continue to monitor Regence’s progress,” said Kara Klotz, with the commissioner’s public affairs office.
Depending on the severity of these problems, Regence could face financial or other penalties.
“This is something that’s looked at on an individual case by case basis, and we’re not ready to comment at this time” [about Regence], according to Stephanie Marquis, public affairs spokesperson for the commissioner’s office.
Marquis was unwilling to say anything about the seriousness of the problems identified in the report. “We do not have a comment at this time, and we’ll let the exam speak for itself.”
Before the market conduct exam was made public, on Oct. 11, Regence had an opportunity to review the document and did offer several technical clarifications. They also asked the commissioner’s office to modify the report before releasing it publicly -- based on its clarifications – but didn’t get its way. The insurance commissioner stood behind his report.
“This exam clearly shows that Regence has some serious problems in the basic functions of a health plan such as being able to process claims and deal with customer complaints that it needs to come to grips with,” an executive who works for Regence in Oregon told The Lund Report. “And, it’s a shame that it took multiple issues going to the Washington Insurance Commissioner for them to conduct this study; this type of study should be done annually for all insurers in Washington state, and legislators should require each insurer to include an executive summary of their most recent market conduct study.”
Defending the company, Regena Frieden told The Lund Report that it’s corrected these problems and is actually exceeding its service targets in claims processing and customer service. “We are pleased to learn that our companies passed more than 92 percent of the standards in the 2011 market conduct report,” Frieden handles public relations for Cambia Health Solutions, the parent company of the Regence plans.
Another Shake Up at Regence
Meanwhile, there’s been another shake up inside Regence BlueShield. Leonard Hagen, director of regulatory affairs, whose job it was to respond to the problems identified by the commissioner’s office, has left the company to pursue a career in estate planning.
And Jonathan Hensley, who was tossed out as Regence’s president by Jared Short has been replaced by Don Antonucci, who’s left his position as president of Regence in Oregon, and now is responsible for dealing with the insurance commissioner’s findings.
Angela Dowling has stepped into Antonucci’s shoes, having joined Regence earlier as vice president of sales.
When asked for a comment about the departure of Hagen, Regence put its own spin on the leadership change. “Len’s decision to leave is unrelated to the market conduct exam report or our response to the Washington OIC on these issues,” according to Frieden.
With more than a million members, Regence BlueShield is Washington’s largest insurance company.
Regence Problems
The investigation into Regence’s practices started in January 2010 following numerous complaints by policyholders. A further look into the company’s practices revealed that Regence had been withdrawing insurance premiums from the wrong bank accounts, and, in some cases, those accounts actually belonged to people who weren’t even Regence members. Thousands of claims weren’t being paid on time, particularly for retirees who were members of the state’s Public Employees Benefit Board.
Regence had also caused distress among members who were scheduled for a surgical procedure within 72 hours, but learned the insurer had changed its mind and decided it would no longer pay for the operation
One reason the exam dragged for so long was Regence’s failure to provide information in a timely fashion. They’d often wait until the last minute and repeatedly ask for extensions. At times, the responses were given in “minimized screen size despite repeated requests to provide full screens and even examiners with generally good eyesight had to use magnifiers to work on the files creating unnecessary delays,” according to the report.
The examiners also found that operational areas inside Regence did not communicate with each other and often maintained separate systems and record keeping processes that were not compatible.
It’s unknown whether any other insurance companies in Washington have been targeted for a market conduct exam since such activities are considered confidential until a report has been released, according to Marquis. The last such exam conducted on Regence occurred in 2004.
Kreidler Investigates
In September 2011, Kreidler called together the insurance commissioners from Oregon, Utah and Idaho in Sale to discuss the problems he’d seen in Washington with Mark Ganz, then the president and CEO of The Regence Group (now Cambia Health Solutions).
“The status quo clearly isn’t acceptable,” Kreidler said. “Most of these things seem to be systemic problems, rather than isolated incidents. We’ll be watching Regence more closely. We want to make certain the issues are fixed the right way. The Regence Group needs to get its act together. We’ve seen an ongoing pattern of errors and problems with Regence and its subsidiaries. Many of these problems directly harm consumers and healthcare providers.” Since then, Regence’s holding company has changed its name to Cambia Health Solutions.
The problems identified by Kreidler at that time were:
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Regence’s “SurePay” computer system malfunctioned on Aug. 5, 2011, resulting in more than 6,000 incorrect transactions.
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Medical claims from tens of thousands of retirees had gone unpaid for months.
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In more than 200 cases, the company apparently withdrew money from the bank accounts of people who are not even Regence members. Some of the withdrawals totaled thousands of dollars. In the process, some Regence members’ names and identification numbers were accidentally disclosed to strangers.
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Regence’s systems and processes resulted in after-the-fact denial of claims for many pre-authorized medical services.
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There was a pattern of claims being delayed because documentation has been misplaced by Regence, only to later be found.
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Regence’s underwriting department provided a phone number for consumer questions. When consumers called that number, they would receive a message saying that contact was available only on Thursdays. On Thursdays, there was no answer.
Dlane can be reached at [email protected]
