Blue Cross of California encouraged employees through performance evaluations to cancel the health insurance policies of individuals with expensive illnesses, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) charged at the start of a congressional hearing today on the controversial practice known as rescission.
The state's largest for-profit health insurer told The Times 18 months ago that it did not tie employee performance evaluations to rescission activity. And executives with Blue Cross parent company WellPoint Inc. reiterated that position today.
But documents obtained by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and released today show that the company's employee performance evaluation program did include a review of rescission activity.
The documents show, for instance, that one Blue Cross employee earned a perfect score of "5" for "exceptional performance" on an evaluation that noted the employee's role in dropping thousands of policyholders and avoiding nearly $10 million worth of medical care.
WellPoint's Blue Cross of California subsidiary and two other insurers saved more than $300 million in medical claims by canceling more than 20,000 sick policyholders over a five-year period, the House committee said.
"When times are good, the insurance company is happy to sign you up and take your money in the form of premiums," Stupak said. "But when times are bad, and you are afflicted with cancer or some other life-threatening disease, it is supposed to honor its commitments and stand by you in your time of need.
ChattahBox)—American Community Mutual Insurance drove an Illinois family towards the brink of bankruptcy, with a simple cold-blooded bureaucratic decision to cancel the health insurance of the family’s teenage daughter, after she was diagnosed with celiac disease. The family is now facing thousands of dollars in medical expenses and is in danger of losing their home.
Health insurance companies are increasingly engaging in a deplorable practice called, rescission where insurers search for evidence of untruthfulness on applications, or comb through medical records to find an ailment that may qualify as a pre-existing condition, and then abruptly cancel insurance coverage.
Many rescissions take place soon after an insured is diagnosed with a major medical condition or suffers from serious injuries, requiring expensive medical treatments. It’s a simple dollars and cents calculation made by the health insurance company, that is in the business of making money, not saving lives, which plunges families into bankruptcy or worse, results in death from lack of needed medical treatments.
Dale and Pat Rice of Deerfield, Illinois purchased an individual health insurance policy from American Community Mutual for their 17-year old daughter Brianna, in November 2008, after Dale lost his job and couldn’t afford the COBRA payments to continue with his employer-provided health insurance.
In February 2009, Brianna was diagnosed with celiac disease. On May 12, the insurer sent the Rices a letter stating it was rescinding coverage, dating back to Nov. 1, the date of the policy, because the company said the couple lied on their daughter’s application:
“The coverage you applied for would not have been issued for Brianna if we had known this medical history at the time of application,” the letter said.
The company claimed that while searching through Brianna’s medical records and doctor’s visits, they found instances of dizziness, elevated cholesterol levels, ongoing fatigue and a persistent cough.
The Merced Police Department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating whether an officer twice used a Taser on an unarmed, wheelchair-bound man with no legs.
The man who was Tasered, Gregory Williams, 40, a double-leg amputee, spent six days in jail on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest, but the Merced County District Attorney's office hasn't filed any charges.
Williams is black, and the two main arresting officers are white, but it's unknown whether race played any role in the incident.
Williams, who was released from jail on Friday, said he was manhandled and Tasered by police, even though he said he was never physically aggressive toward the officers and didn't resist arrest.
Williams said he was humiliated after his pants fell down during the incident. The officers allegedly left him outdoors in broad daylight, handcuffed on the pavement, nude below the waist. Williams said the Sept. 11 arrest also left him with an injured shoulder, limiting his mobility in his wheelchair.
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Filling in for America’s MOST EVIL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, you're bout to see negress Alison Stewart!
Now I don’t want y’all to concentrate on the DEMONIC LIBERAL LIES she’s passing on, but I do want y’all to see something these Libs didn’t count on us REAL Americans catching:Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Oh sure, that SOUNDS all humanitarian and whatnot…except for the fact that ONLY GOD SHOULD DECIDE WHEN A PERSON LIVES OR DIES!! *
So NOBODY ought be given the CHOICE to be taken off life support! If’n it’s their time, then Jesus will send in the Grim Reaper and make that decision for them! +
But it gets worse, y’all.
Take a closer look at the fine print {Here}:
That’s right, children! “President” Barack HUSSEIN Obama is DECEIVING veterans into signing over their souls to his master, the PRINCE OF DARKNESS!!
Now you see why they got so many armed protesters!
It ain’t no unspoken threat to a negro ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT, it’s an overt unspoken threat to SATAN’S HANDMAIDEN!!!
