business
New Mexico tightens rules on health insurance rate hikes
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 25, 2011
Effective January 2012, health insurers doing business in New Mexico must provide more detailed justification for premium increases to the state's insurance commissioner. They also have to provide a detailed disclosure to customers who would be affected by the hikes.
The new rules require insurers to list expected and past medical-loss ratios, whether the insurer has stopped selling policies for the affected block of business and how much money the plan holds in reserve.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed the rules into law on April 7.
State law already gave the state insurance commissioner authority to block health insurance rate increases. As of December 2010, 16 states do not require state review or approval for health insurance rate increases, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act gives the federal government the authority to intervene in the case of "unreasonable" increases.
The New Mexico Medical Society did not take a position on the bill.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/04/25/bibf0425.htm.
