Health insurers threaten to take their ball and go home
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Healthcare
What Your Credit Card Won’t Let You Buy
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<strong>Some card companies have policies that restrict even legal purchases.</strong></div>
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Our Hall of Famers
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On June 4th, at our <a href="http://www.rageforjustice.org">Rage for Justice Awards</a>, Consumer Watchdog will induct two remarkable patient advocates into the select group in Consumer Watchdog's <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/rage-justice-awards">Hall of Fame</a>.</p>
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Dana Christensen and Hilda Sarkisyan will be welcomed into the Hall of Farme for their heroic efforts to raise awareness about health insurance company abuses.</p>
Health Reform and Insurance Regulation: Can’t Have One Without the Other
Health insurance premiums are increasing at a rate faster than medical inflation, especially in the volatile individual and small group markets, and worker incomes have...
Were you slammed by an ‘out of network’ anesthesia bill?
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<img class=" size-full wp-image-2068" alt="" class="right" src="http://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/anesthesiabill.jpg" style="width: 168px; height: 112px;" width="168" height="112" />Consumer Watchdog is investigating a pernicious threat to your pocketbook: the out-of-network medical specialist, particularly in hospitals. We’re trying to confirm how widespread the problem is, and need your help.</p>
Insurance Agents’ Political Contributions Questioned
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Health insurance agents and brokers who are lobbying to be excluded from a healthcare reform provision gave lawmakers more than $3.18 million in the 2010 election cycle, Consumer Watchdog said Thursday.</p>
MLR Action
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The decision of state insurance regulators to delay a decision on whether they will support health insurance agents on the critical medical loss ratio issue constitutes to be a major setback for the agents.<br />
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The key National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Professional Health Insurance Advisers Task Force took the action late March 20, as one of the final acts of the NAIC's spring meeting, held in Austin, Tex.<br />
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Connecticut Is Among States Praised By A Consumer Group For Opposing Bill That “Would Raise Health Insurance Premiums”
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A national consumer group says a bill before Congress would increase the price of health insurance by allowing insurers to exclude broker commissions when calculating what portion of premiums is spent on patient medical expenses versus administrative costs. </p>
NH Groups Urge HHS To Block State’s Waiver Request
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New Hampshire’s hospital industry and consumer groups are urging the Obama administration to reject the state’s request for temporary relief from a healthcare reform regulation. </p>
NAIC To Collect More Data On Effect Of Medical Loss Ratios On Agent/Broker Commissions
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Austin, Texas -- It took more than three hours, for the National Association of Insurance Commissioner's Professional Health Insurance Advisers Task Force to agree to hold off on deciding whether to endorse a federal bill that would exempt commissions paid to insurance agents and brokers from the medical loss ratios required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.<br />
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Instead, the task force opted to refer the issue back to the Health and Managed Care Committee to collect more data on the matter.<br />
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NAIC Digs In On The Details
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Austin, Texas - Everything may be bigger in Texas, but at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meeting opening here today, the key action hinges on the small but crucial details of insurance regulation.<br />
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In its two previous meetings, the NAIC took hotly debated votes to move forward on the medical loss ratio regulation, laying out what would count as medical costs and what would be administrative.<br />
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Consumer Group Blasts Insurance Agents and Brokers
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A consumer advocacy group, pushing back strong against insurance brokers’ and agents’ request for relief from a healthcare reform provision, published documents on Friday showing they are paid as much as 20 percent of a customer’s insurance premium.<br />
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The nation’s insurance commissioners this weekend are set to consider a request from agents and brokers to back changes to a healthcare regulation they say will push them out of the marketplace.<br />
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