Business
R.I. sees return of insurer
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 6, 2008
Massachusetts-based Tufts Health Plan says it is returning to neighboring Rhode Island after a nine-year absence.
Tufts, which had 5,700 members when it pulled out of the state in 1999, was able to return after state legislators changed a provision of health plan regulation that the company said gave too much of an advantage to the state's largest insurers, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and UnitedHealth Group.
The provision, stripped in June, said only insurers doing business in the state in 2001 could take the health status of members into account when it set small-group rates for companies with 50 employees or fewer.
Despite Tufts' return, state officials don't believe it will have an effect either way on consumer premiums and physician reimbursement.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/10/06/bibf1006.htm.
