Rate review - long comment letter - 22Feb11

Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight Department of Health and Human Services ATTN: OCIIO-9999-P Room 445-G, Hubert H. Humphrey Building 200 Independence Avenue SW Washington, DC 20201 February 22, 2011 Dear Secretary Sebelius: On behalf of millions of health care consumers, we are writing to comment on the notice of proposed rulemaking OCIIO-9999-P, Rate Increase Disclosure and Review. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created several critical provisions to stop unjustified health insurance premium increases, improve the rate review capacity in states, and make the rate review process more transparent. These provisions are essential to protect consumers from record, and often unjustifiable, premium increases. Section 2794 of the PHSA (added by 1003 of the ACA) requires the HHS Secretary, in conjunction with the states, to develop a process for reviewing “unreasonable” premium increases for all fully-insured health plans. In this process, a health insurer is required to submit to the Secretary and the relevant state a justification for an unreasonable premium increase prior to its implementation. The Secretary and insurers will disclose this information on their respective websites. Unfortunately, the statute does not give the Secretary the ability to deny or modify unreasonable rate increases. This rule will give consumers and regulators needed information about proposed rate hikes and will force insurers to justify ...