Kansas Health Insurance Companies Individual Market

The Kansas Health Insurance Department held a fact-finding hearing last week on the impact that PPACA’s 80 percent MLR will have on health insurance companies operating in the state’s individual health insurance market and any potential disruption of the market as a whole. The Department asked insurers to provide information in advance of the hearing on the number of individual enrollees by product along with premium information for each product. Larger insurers were also asked for total earned premium for the individual health insurance market, reported MLR figures under state law, and the estimated MLR for 2011. Plans were also asked to provide the total agent/broker commissions, estimated PPACA MLR rebate for the state, net underwriting profit and profit margin, RBC level and whether any notice has been issued for exiting the marketplace.  Aetna health insurance attended the hearing, which was dominated by brokers and agents testifying about the reduction in their commissions by several plans since the beginning of this year. Coventry health insurance also presented testimony about its plans to cut administrative expenses to comply with the new MLR, including changes to its commission structure. The Commissioner indicated that she plans to make a decision in the near future about how to proceed on this issue.

Tags: aetna health insurancecoventry health carehealth insurance companiesindividual health insurancekansas health insuranceMLRPPACAsmall business