September 16th, 2010 – Today, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that it would give $20 million in rebates back to 90,000 individual health insurance policyholders in Colorado that were insured between January 1st and September 1st of 2010. There is still some discussion about the logistics of the rebate, but it appears for now that Anthem will be mailing checks to effected policy holders in December.
It appears that the rebates will be pro-rated based upon the amount of premium paid and the number of months the policy was in force. So, a family of four would receive a larger rebate than a single policy holder with the same plan; And a family that was insured for the entire period will receive a larger rebate than someone who was only insured for 3 months in 2010.
The rebate followed interactions with the Colorado Division of Insurance after reviewing Anthem’s 2010 rate filings. No blame was assigned to either party and the 2010 rates filings were upheld.
For its part, Anthem said it is confident that “its rates are appropriate, consistent with state law and in line with its competitors,” said spokeswoman Joyzelle Davis. “As part of the agreement, the DOI reaffirmed our 2010 individual premiums, and those rates will not change.”
The rebate does not apply to very old plans like the Colorado Major Medical or Custom Plus Plans or to Group Conversion Plan policyholders.
This type of rebate is not unprecedented. In 2008 Kaiser Permanente announced a much larger $155 million rebate to be paid out over two years after having talks with the Colorado Division of Insurance.
