I mentioned a couple of months ago, Health Net of California was under investigation for improperly canceling policies to almost a thousand policy holders in California under the use of Rescission, which is a tool used by insurance companies to cancel your ass when your health is less important than their bottom line.
According to the California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, Health Net has settled for around 25 million dollars. This article over at CNN Money has these tidbits
The settlement is worth $25 million, including $14.2 million in potential payments for medical charges, $7.2 million in waived insurance premiums and a $ 3.6 million penalty, Poizner said in a release. Health Net could face additional fines if corrective actions aren’t made.
“The health insurance industry is on notice that I will not tolerate illegal rescissions, but my ultimate goal is to protect consumers by changing the way future rescissions are decided and prevent improper rescission practices,” Poizner said.
Source: CNN Money
The news is that potential payments will bring this figure in lower than stated. The bad news is that Poizner left the rescission door open.
The really bad news:
Health Net maintains a policy that it will not rescind coverage until an independent third-party review process has been established, Gellert said. The company supports legislative health-system reforms that would guarantee and require coverage or everyone, which would make rescissions obsolete, he said.
Source: CNN Money
Policy in one hand, crap in the other.
Yeah they would love to get insurance company managed Universal Health Care. Covering everybody would make rescissions go away. Having Insurance Companies manage this is not the right way to go.