Nearly $1 million in insurance refunds coming to W.Va.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Nearly $1 million in insurance refunds coming to W.Va.
By Lydia Nuzum, Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than $900,000 in refunds from insurance companies are headed to 8,300 people in West Virginia.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced the payments Thursday, crediting the Affordable Care Act, and said the refunds in West Virginia will average $177 per family.
The payments are being made under the medical loss ratio requirement of the act, also called the 80/20 rule, a provision that requires insurers to make the refunds if they fail to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect from customers in the individual- and small-group markets on medical care or activities that improve health-care quality. That ratio jumps to 85 percent in the large-group market, and companies that do not meet the standard are required to offer customers a rebate for the difference.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, spearheaded the inclusion of the 80/20 Rule in the ACA, said the rule, which went into effect in 2011, has allowed for more transparency for the health insurance marketplace....
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