MetLife is the latest to settle with New York Attorney General Spitzer for its use of contingent commissions. With UnumProvident and Prudential Financial already paying millions in fines and restitution to customers, MetLife will now pay $16.5 million to policyholders and $2.5 million in New York penalties.What is amazing is how long all of this has gone on. For years after the scandal first
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Browse » Home » Archives for December 2006
Why is Health Care Cost Trend So Low?
In my last two posts (below) I pointed out that commercial medical cost trend has been reported to be as low as 5.5% to 6% with most employers reporting 2007 increases in the 7% to 8% range.While employer trend rates are at this level, health plans are reporting even lower internal trend rates with commercial profits remaining strong and virtually all of the plans reporting rate increases ahead
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HMOs Better Negotiators Than Employers for 2007
"Benefit consultants and brokers are reporting that medical trend rates are continuing to fall - to the 7% to 8% range - while health plans are reporting that their actual costs are trending as low as 5.5% to 6.5%."That's the lead in an article I wrote that was published in this month's issue of Employee Benefit Adviser.In it, I reviewed the third quarter HMO earnings reports and compared them to
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Cost Trend..How Low Will it Go?
Health Care Cost TrendsLast month I asked, just how low will medical cost trend go?Apparently, still lower.Health care cost trends have been falling for a number of years since peaking in 2002 at around 14%. Recent reports have annual commercial health plan trend as low as 5.5% to 6.5% in a few places.The good news about lower health care cost trends continued as publicly traded health plans
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The 2007 Congressional Health Policy Agenda
The Congressional Agenda—Old BusinessThe current Congress is leaving a lot of work undone:• A Health Information Technology (HIT) Bill – The old Congress will not be able to complete work on the House and Senate versions of a HIT bill. Before the election, they had hoped to be able to finish it during the “lame duck” session. It is now clear that won’t happen and the new Congress will start from
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Part D Profits––Not Yet the Great Results the Industry Hoped For
Part D—Some Results Starting to Come InTo say the Part D business has been controversial this year would certainly be an understatement. It’s not news that many in the industry have questioned its sustainability as a business—including me.During 2006, the profitability data hasn’t been credible. In fact, it will likely be another year before we get a good sense for what’s really going on. While
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The Democrats Will Change MedicareAdvantage
So, Now What?Most observers don’t think the Democratic takeover will end up meaning a lot. It takes 60 votes do get anything done in the Senate, there is still a Republican presidential veto to contend with, and Democrats would be foolish to rollback the Republican tax cuts or repeal programs like the Part D Medicare drug benefit or the new private Medicare Advantage plans that now have millions
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Why the Republicans Lost
After six years of one-party government, things here in Washington were getting kind of boring.That’s already started to change.The November ElectionIn past years, I have told you that the chances the Democrats could capture the House of Representatives were low because of all the highly political gerrymandering of districts that took place in the wake of the 2000 census. That redistricting made
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