Regence defends 22% rate increase

Portland Business Journal:

Oregon regulators, lawmakers and customers are demanding that Regence BlueCross BlueShield explain its plan to raise individual plan rates by 22 percent.

Portland-based Regence — the state’s largest health insurer with almost 800,000 medical Oregon members — has plenty of answers...

Short will face his share of grilling during the public hearing. Regence and other health plans have already received an earful from state Sen. Chip Shields, a Portland Democrat.

Shields questions how Regence can raise rates when national insurance utilization numbers, which indicate how much insurers pay providers, are dropping...

Shields is championing Senate Bill 717 because he believes the efforts will lend credence to small businesses’ concerns.

Short said Regence supports the state’s transparency effort. The insurer created a website — whatstherealcost.org — that offers insights, but Shields said Regence and other insurers, especially Providence Health Systems, have pushed back on his efforts.

“The industry is very much on message that the blame should fall on somebody else,” he said. “That’s fine, but if that’s the case, I can’t understand why they’d want to keep small business customers from having a seat at the table so they can explain that in a public forum.”

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