Commissioner Senn Orders Hearing Into Possible Violations of State Rate-filing Laws by Regence Blue Shield.OLYMPIA Olympia, city, ancient Greece Olympia, ancient city, important center of the worship of Zeus in ancient Greece, in Elis near the Alpheus (now Alfiós) R. It was the scene of the Olympic games. , Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 1999-- State Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn Deborah Senn is a Washington politician. She was the Insurance Commissioner (1993-2001) and ran in the 2000 US Senate Democratic primary election against Maria Cantwell. In 2004, she unsuccessfully ran for Attorney General against Rob McKenna. Deborah also has her own law firm. says she has ordered a hearing to examine evidence that the state's largest health insurance carrier violated vi·o·late tr.v. vi·o·lat·ed, vi·o·lat·ing, vi·o·lates 1. To break or disregard (a law or promise, for example). 2. To assault (a person) sexually. 3. the law in pushing for rate increases in four successive filings this year. "Regence Re´gence n. 1. Rule. BlueShield's failure to follow the law and cooperate with the regulatory process has cost the state an enormous amount of time and money," Commissioner Senn said. Commissioner Senn noted that Regence's series of filings did not address the discrepancies her staff pointed out, and each new filing posed new problems. The first filing lacked most of the documentation required by state law; the second was incomplete; the third was contradictory and included suspect data; and the fourth failed to explain discrepancies in the previous data. "It was not until after the fourth filing, once I had decisively rejected this attempt to raise rates without a demonstration of need, that Regence finally did deliver the required data in response to the discovery process in a formal hearing," Commissioner Senn said. "That means it took more than four months for Regence to provide the data required to support a 25.8% rate increase." In her order for a hearing on Regence's actions, Commissioner Senn tallied more than 30 potential violations of state law with recommended fines of up to $5,000 per violation. The most serious violations listed in the order included: inclusion of data that was not actuarially sound consistent with the company's methodology; claims figures that should not have changed without explanation; and internally inconsistent data. Commissioner Senn said the filings' inconsistencies and errors unnecessarily complicated the rate reviews, confused the public, and suggested that the series of rate filings was intended to manipulate manipulate To cause a security to sell at an artificial price. Although investment bankers are permitted to manipulate temporarily the stock they underwrite, most other forms of manipulation are illegal. the regulatory process. Commissioner Senn said the hearing would be scheduled as quickly as her office and Regence's attorneys could meet and agree on a schedule. Editors: Any insurance consumer experiencing difficulties with a carrier or who feels that he or she has been treated unfairly may request an investigation by Commissioner Senn's office. Call the toll-free Consumer Hot Line (1-800-562-6900) or visit Commissioner Senn's Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the Web Page at http://www.insurance.wa.gov See .gov and GovNet. (networking) gov - The top-level domain for US government bodies. . |
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