Wellpoint Lobbyists Axed Key Protections for Breast Cancer Patients From Health Care Bill

[IndianaGreen]

Wellpoint Lobbyists Axed Key Protections for Breast Cancer Patients From Health Care Bill

Jane Hamsher.Founder, FireDogLake.com
Posted: April 22, 2010 02:18 PM

Federal investigators have told Reuters that WellPoint, the country's largest insurance company, is using an algorithm to identify women with breast cancer for the express purpose of dropping their coverage.

Murray Waas writes that WellPoint "specifically targeted women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with the intent to cancel their policies":

The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.

They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.

Wellpoint claimed that these women had made material misrepresentations in order to justify dropping their coverage, but Waas says they were dropped "based on either erroneous or flimsy information." Last week, Waas reported that AIDS patients were being similarly targeted for recision.

The version of health care bill passed by the House of Representatives would've allowed these women to apply to an "independent external third party" for review before being dropped. It also would have required Wellpoint to keep their coverage in place until the board made its determination, and policies could only be canceled in cases with "clear and convincing evidence of fraud."

Those provisions were not included in the Senate Finance Committee bill, however, which became the basis for the final health care bill signed by the President.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/wellpoint-lobbyists-axed_b_548220.html

[GCP]

1. Truly sickening

If I had known this was going on, I might even have joined the teabaggers in protesting it. This bill is really an abomination.