WellPoint settles Calif. lawsuit and Who’s going to China?

Good news to help some of the financially strapped hospitals here in California, but how much will each one actually see, as 11.8 million among 480 hospitals is not a huge chunk of change. In the meantime though, the current woes for WellPoint continue over stiffer penalties. One report from last week stated the state was “intimidated” as the carrier has such huge legal resources.

I’m not sure how all this shakes out with paying claims, but I read where Anthem Blue Cross donates funds to help with healthcare in many areas, including medical records and other areas, but the one thing that I seem to wonder about is what if all these other ventures and contributions went to just paying medical claims instead? Does that make sense, and that would go for all insurance carriers for that matter. Sure the other contributions are a good thing in many areas, but so is getting your medical bills paid without the stress and anxiety over worrying whether or not an individual will have coverage. Has the insurance business lost their primary focus or does the current system of handling claims provide the funds for the other areas of interest. I realize too there are bigger markets to pursue such as China from what is published today, so what happens when the market here is deemed no longer profitable and one that creates enough returns for stockholders. Will stockholders be dependent on what happens with profits in China for their return on investments? United just recently paid off on another lawsuit. In Michigan Blue Cross faces another suit over other activities.

Who else is going to China…Drug Companies are there too, so much in the fact that the FDA is opening up offices there to look after our interests, too, so I guess my next question is what is left here for healthcare and who isn’t going to China? BD

WellPoint Inc., the Indianapolis-based health insurer, agreed Monday to pay $11.8 million to settle claims from about 480 California hospitals that it failed to cover the bills of patients it dropped after they were treated -- a controversial practice known as rescission. Both Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times report that WellPoint units Blue Cross of California and Blue Cross Life & Health were accused in a 2006 class-action, or group lawsuit of illegally rescinding insurance policies after patients filed claims, forcing hospitals to try to collect from patients, according to Hooper Lundy and Bookman Inc., a Los Angeles law firm representing the hospitals.