Our Point of View

Apr 17 2008

Kaiser Permanente Comments on the California Department of Managed Health Care's Statements about Health Insurance Rescission

Statement from Jerry Fleming, Kaiser Permanente Senior Vice President, National Health Plan Manager

We support a fair, standardized process for consumers.

We have been working in cooperation with the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) to review and evolve the process for medical screening for applicants for individual coverage for some time. It has always been our intention to enroll people who qualify for coverage and treat people fairly.

In October of 2006, Kaiser Permanente voluntarily suspended rescission, awaiting clear guidelines from the state. We will continue working with the Department to develop a process that will work for reviewing past cases and future applicants. We very much want a process that is fair and accurate.

We are supportive of an independent third-party review process for rescission that applies fair and clear standards to assess the accuracy of the information provided by an applicant to the plan and the appropriateness of the plan's decision

Additionally, we continue to be supportive of legislative and regulatory efforts that allow consumers, plans and the Department to have confidence in the fairness and appropriateness of decisions about individual plan coverage.