{"id":7043,"date":"2015-11-27T10:17:16","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T15:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/?p=7043"},"modified":"2015-11-27T10:17:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T15:17:16","slug":"blue-cross-adjusts-to-aca-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/2015\/11\/blue-cross-adjusts-to-aca-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Cross Adjusts to ACA Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Questions<\/a><\/p>\n

Open Enrollment for 2016<\/a> is now in full swing and customers are asking a lot of hard questions, fair questions, questions that demand an answer.\u00a0 Most of the questions and frustrations center around one thing:\u00a0 rate increases.\u00a0 On a near daily basis, insurance companies, agents and brokers are having to try to explain why <\/em>the cost of insurance is soaring and how<\/em> families and individuals are supposed to step up and meet the\u00a0rising costs.\u00a0 Prior to Open Enrollment, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina <\/a>made a strenuous effort to try and answer some of these questions in advance, stating that the “goal, as always, is to offer health coverage that our customers can depend on at rates as affordable and sustainable as possible.”\u00a0\u00a0Blue Cross went on to explain why\u00a0a rate increase was imperative in order to maintain viability.\u00a0\u00a0In fact,\u00a0the company provided\u00a0claims data for 2014 and the first half of 2015, reporting a $132 million dollar loss on ACA business alone.\u00a0 At that time, BCBSNC explained\u00a0two important trends:\u00a0 First, there was no slowdown in any residual demand for medical services from new customers entering the health insurance marketplace <\/a>after the induction of the ACA and second, there was a prevalence of more chronic health conditions needing medical treatment among ACA customers.<\/p>\n

In more recent news, United Health Care has announced it may completely pull out of ACA Exchanges in 2017<\/a>, citing significant losses on ACA business as the reason for this consideration.\u00a0 The New York Times reported that United Health Group told investors “it was significantly lowering its profit estimates and blamed an expected loss of hundreds of millions of dollars selling individual policies under federal health care law” (11\/20, B1, Abelson, Subscription Publication).\u00a0\u00a0 The article further stated “the company said it was\u00a0estimating losses of more than $600 million from its exchange business, before taxes, in 2015 and 2016.”\u00a0 With this announcement, customers are once again faced with hard questions about what is happening in the health insurance industry.<\/p>\n

As a leader in providing health insurance to the residents of North Carolina, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC has continued to maintain an outstanding reputation and has\u00a0 remained committed to the residents of NC despite the strain of the last few years and the changes in the insurance market.\u00a0 The company has adjusted and re-adjusted in an effort to maintain sustainability under crushing\u00a0financial losses and accusations of corporate greed.\u00a0 As insurance agents, we have experienced the strain from\u00a0all sides, as both the corporation and\u00a0consumers feel the pressure.\u00a0 In the end, it is important for insurance consumers to consider a few important things.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

First and foremost<\/em><\/strong>, as the latest news from United Health Care supports,\u00a0every insurance company in North Carolina is experiencing these financial pressures, resulting in rate increases across the board.\u00a0 Second<\/strong><\/em>, insurance companies are regulated by the Insurance Commission and are not allowed to raise rates arbitrarily without providing fact and statistics that persuade the Commission that a rate increase is necessary for the company to stay in business.\u00a0 Third<\/strong><\/em>, although\u00a0Blue Cross\u00a0Blue\u00a0Shield NC has always, and continues to,\u00a0boast the broadest network of providers in the state, they have reluctantly, but diligently, worked to divide and limit networks in 16 major counties in order to try and reduce the cost of premiums for the consumer.\u00a0 Finally<\/strong><\/em>, none of that\u00a0changes the fact that rate increases are a frustrating and difficult reality that Blue Cross Blue\u00a0Shield of North Carolina\u00a0openly acknowledges.<\/p>\n

As Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina works to weather this new market, one thing is certain:\u00a0 as consumers, you still have choices<\/a>.\u00a0 In answer to many of the hard questions currently surrounding the insurance industry, BCBSNC continues to encourage consumers that they are striving to remain viable and to provide quality coverage to the residents of North Carolina<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For more information on Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina insurance coverage, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com <\/a>or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our experienced and professional agents.\u00a0CLICK HERE to apply online in 8 minutes or less<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open Enrollment for 2016 is now in full swing and customers are asking a lot of hard questions, fair questions, questions that demand an answer.\u00a0 Most of the questions and frustrations center around one thing:\u00a0 rate increases.\u00a0 On a near daily basis, insurance companies, agents and brokers are having to try to explain why the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560,659],"tags":[835,415,596,836],"class_list":["post-7043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affordable-care-act-aca","category-open-enrollment-2","tag-affordable-health-care","tag-blue-cross-blue-shield-nc","tag-obamacare","tag-rate-increases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7043"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7137,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7043\/revisions\/7137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}