As you may or may not know, as of September 1st carriers wanting more than a image10% raise are now required to substantiate why.  This means they just pull out the old business analytics software and create some algorithms that can deeply dig into actual reporting numbers and through a series of queries, figure out how to present their case. 

Sometimes the government has been successful in the battle with questioning their methodologies and numbers but sometimes it gets difficult for the government as the series of numbers, analytics used is difficult to interpret.  Along with this Secretary Sebelius better get some algo folks on board to use some big data and double check these folks as it won’t get done and verified any other way.  She’s got the right idea here but now let’s see her back it up with some digital teeth.   I looked up California and being the website data just came into play it shows that since September1, 2011 that no insurers have proposed increases over 10%, but we only have a little over one month’s time here so as time moves forward perhaps this will become useful to track them as they are filed. 

It’s getting more difficult all the time to regulate an industry that puts the government IT infrastructure to shame in calculating and querying abilities…and their algorithms that giveith and taketh away.  BD 

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That information was mostly unavailable before, said Steve Larsen, the Department of Health and Human Services deputy director for oversight. Only a few states include rate raises on their websites. Now, however, all insurance companies must file that information with HHS because of last year's health care law.

The site's address is http://companyprofiles.healthcare.gov/.

"We are taking a good, hard look at why insurance companies are seeking to raise your rates, why your premiums might be going up, and making sure these decisions are public and justified," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. "This is just a start, and over time we will be reporting more of these requests."

The new site will also include a section where consumers can comment about rate increases.

If HHS provides "consumers a better idea of the rate increases in a system with a lot of costs, that's good," said Susan Voss, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Consumers, she said, should recognize that some increases are justified, and an increase is just one factor to consider when deciding whether to buy or keep a policy.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/insurance/story/2011-10-07/health-insurance-rate-hike-website/50682044/1

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