Friday, April 21, 2017

Dogs & Fleas

Back in the day, the insurance industry went all-in on ObamaCare (after all, what's not to love about a law that requires citizens to buy one's product?). And it appeared to be kind of a no-brainer: rack up big losses? No problemmo, we'll backstop those with a slush special fund (aka Risk Corridor). Now, at least one willing participant, Blue Cross/Shield of North Carolina, risks losing some major bucks because:

"A federal judge dealt a major blow to a health insurer's attempt to recoup millions of dollars" by rejecting the carrier's lawsuit against HHS accusing the agency of "failing to make good on its obligation to pay nearly $130 million under the ACA risk corridors program."

This shouldn't have come as a shock to BX, since the program has been notoriously underfunded for quite some time:

"In October 2015, HHS officials announced that the program had taken in only enough cash ... to pay about 16% of the amounts owed "

Sustainability!

FoIB Jeff M wonders what affect, if any, this will have on the carrier's plans to bonus its execs millions of dollars for last year's winning performance. I think we all know the answer to that.
blog comments powered by Disqus