Anthem Blue Cross withdraws planned California rate hike, will address ‘miscalculations’

Anthem Blue Cross withdraws planned CA rate hike

LOS ANGELES — Anthem Blue Cross withdrew plans Thursday to raise health insurance rates for California customers by as much as 39 percent, citing errors in its earlier calculations.

The Woodland Hills-based company said it will revise the rate requests it had filed with the California Department of Insurance and the Department of Managed Health Care as soon as possible.

Anthem notified many policyholders in January that the rate increases would go into effect March 1 but subsequently announced a delay amid public outcry.

“By refiling our individual rate requests, we will also utilize updated and real-time medical utilization information, as well as address inadvertent miscalculations related to the way in which we estimated our future medical costs in our initial filings,” the company said in a press release.

Policyholders will be notified of the revised rate adjustments at least 30 days before the changes go into effect, and current rates will remain unchanged until then, Anthem said.

Anthem’s parent WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis announced this week that it will comply ahead of schedule with the health care reform provision that limits cases in which insurers can cancel coverage when a customer gets sick.

WellPoint operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states. Anthem Blue Cross is the trade name of Blue Cross of California.

The withdrawn rate increases also include those of Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Co.