OPINION -- April 25, 2012 -- Regence Blue Cross of Oregon has notified individual subscribers that beginning in October they no longer will be able to buy coverage with a deductible lower than $2,500. The new plan also slashes benefits and raises co-payments and co-insurance.You thought the Enron guys who joked about victimizing Grandma Millie were bad? To me, Regence Blue Cross of Oregon is even worse.
April 13, 2012 – Cambia Health Solutions, the parent company of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, has lost one of its top executives.Dr. Ralph Prows had been chief medical officer for Regence’s four-state region, including Washington, Idaho, Utah and Oregon since September 2010. In that capacity, he led Regence’s medical strategy, maintaining the company’s medical policies and standards while providing oversight to all clinical operations. In September 2004, Prows joined Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon as its medical director.
April 2, 2012 -- The Regence BlueCross BlueShield plans, which have been responsible for the provider network in their four-state region for 418,000 active duty and retired military members and their families, could lose that contract next April after the Department of Defense awarded the TRICARE west region contract to UnitedHealthcare.
March 26, 2012 – CareOregon has recruited a top executive from Regence BlueShield of Idaho, Scott Clement, who joins the managed care plan April 9 to become provider services director. That position was previously held by James Schroeder.In making the announcement, Scott Kreiling, president of Regence BlueShield of Idaho, told employees in a written memo, “It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Scott Clement, Vice President of Provider Services in Idaho, will be leaving the company as of April 6.
March 22, 2012 -- Health insurers, like any other business in Oregon, are allowed to give an unlimited amount of money to state and local political campaigns, ballot and bond measures. Only three other states have such liberal laws – Missouri, Utah and Virginia.
January 27, 2012 -- Today, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon received notice that the Oregon Insurance Division has approved a request by the company to reduce a scheduled premium increase to small business customers in 2012.
January 25, 2012 – Regence Blue Shield isn’t the only insurance company in Washington that won’t participate in Medicaid during fiscal 2012-13.
Columbia United Providers and Premera Health Plan, which actually submitted bids on the proposed contract, have been forced out by the Washington Health Authority – unlike Regence which withdrew after providing care to pregnant women and children since 2002.
January 12, 2012 -- Before the Insurance Division approves the rate request for small employers by Regence BlueCross BlueShield, it needs to justify those increases, according to Laura Etherton, healthcare advocate for OSPIRG Foundation.
December 15, 2011 – In July, Dr. Kathleen Brown decided to leave the Coos Bay clinic where she’d been practicing since 1997 and open her own dermatology practice. It’s not uncommon for doctors to strike out on their own, but Brown’s decision had a twist: she decided to eschew the use of CPT codes, a set of medical billing codes required by the American Medical Association for reimbursement by insurers.