Harvard Pilgrim win may hit small biz
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care won its appeal against the state Division of Insurance’s rejection of premium increases that were set to take effect.
This means that the health insurer could decide to retroactively charge small businesses the difference between the rates they have been paying over the past few months, and the newly approved rates, which range, on average, from 8.3 percent to 11.7 percent — very small businesses would likely see steeper hikes.
“Certainly the carrier does have the right to retroactively impose these rate increases. We hope they won’t, that Harvard Pilgrim would think about this. The world has changed, regardless of this decision, and business and government are going to be scrutinizing these rates,” Barbara Anthony, Undersecretary of the Office of Consumer Affairs said.
A spokeswoman for Harvard Pilgrim said that no decision had been made yet about how to recoup the lost revenue from three months of dis-allowed rate increases. She said that businesses, for now, should just continue to pay last year’s rates, which the DOI required insurers to keep in place as the appeals process played out.
Neighborhood Health Plan has reached a compromise with the DOI — other insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health Plan are still awaiting decisions by the appeals panel on their rate increases.
Anthony said the Patrick administration disagrees with the independent appeal panel’s decision, but that the DOI will keep up the scrutiny of a new round of rate increases, set to take effect July 1. The DOI cannot appeal the decision of the panel. However, the Attorney General’s office can launch a suit in superior court and Anthony said the agencies would be in conversations about that possibility.