BCBSRI insurance rates could rise 9% next year

R.I. HEALTH INSURANCE COMMISSIONER Dr. Kathleen C. Hittner will review and make a final decision on the proposed insurance rate changes. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
R.I. HEALTH INSURANCE COMMISSIONER Dr. Kathleen C. Hittner will review and make a final decision on the proposed insurance rate changes. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

PROVIDENCE – Customers of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, the state’s largest health insurer, could see insurance rates next year increase as much as 9 percent on average.
The Providence-based insurer on May 13 proposed new rate hikes to the R.I. Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, marking the largest proposed rate increases among competitors Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, Tufts Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare.
Blue Cross said the cost of health care in Rhode Island is one of the main drivers behind the increase.
Beginning next year, Blue Cross and Neighborhood will be the only two health insurers to offer plans in the individual market. Blue Cross has proposed a 9 percent average increase for rates beginning Jan. 1, which is 14 percentage points greater than Neighborhood’s request: an average reduction of 5 percent. Neighborhood cited “financial experience of the products, as well as state and federal benefit changes” as reasons for the decrease. Both insurers sell plans through the state’s health exchange, HealthSource RI, in the individual and small-group markets. And on the small-group side, Blue Cross has proposed to increase its rates on average by 7.9 percent compared with Neighborhoods proposed reduction of 2.2 percent. Blue Cross has also proposed an average 8.9 percent increase to is large-group market rates. Neighborhood does not offer plans in the large-group market.
UnitedHealthcare, which is leaving the state exchange next year, will still offer plans outside of the exchange in the small-group and large-group markets and has requested a 0.4 percent average increase and 5.3 percent average increase, respectively.
For Tufts Health Plan, which doesn’t offer plans through the state exchange, the insurer is requesting a 1 percent average rate reduction in the small-group market and a 4.8 percent average increase in the large-group market for its maintenance organization (HMO) plan. For its preferred provider organization (PPO) plan, Tufts is requesting a 0.9 percent average reduction in the small-group market and a 4.3 percent increase in the large-group market.
Dr. Kathleen C. Hittner, commissioner of OHIC, will review and make a final decision on the proposed rate changes. She has the authority to approve, modify or reject the requests. Final decisions are usually made in late July, according to an OHIC spokeswoman.

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