Yes, Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Dakota (which the NY Times says controls 90% of the health insurance market in ND). There are a couple of problems. First, BCBS of ND lost a ton of money last year. They lost $73 million, mainly because their Noridian subsidiary was hired to implement the Obamacare website for the state of Maryland and they screwed it up. So they lost $51 million in the Maryland fiasco (plus another $22 million who knows where?) and BCBS/ND then decided to fire their CEO.
Now there's also a whistleblower lawsuit, basically an employee who was fired because he pointed out several problems with BCBS of North Dakota.
Also, there was a financial scandal involving BCBS/ND several years ago, way back in 2009.
I'll provide more details below the fold...
They recently fired the CEO
Here's the link to the story about the CEO being fired:
ND Blue Cross Blue Shield fires leader after $73 million loss in 2013.
The Blues lost nearly $73 million in 2013, according to records submitted to the North Dakota Insurance Department.
Of that, $51 million was attributed to subsidiary Noridian Healthcare Solutions, which sustained heavy losses from a contract to build the bungled Maryland health care exchange.
No details about the severance package, but the last guy who was fired got 2.2 million to shut up and go away. More about him below.
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The Whistleblower
Here's the link to the whistleblower lawsuit:
Ex-medical director files whistleblower suit against Blue Cross Blue Shield ND; alleges illegal insurance practices
[Kenneth Fischer] discovered what he believed to be faulty practices in his behavioral health area, the lawsuit claims, but soon found it was part of a “significant and widespread” pattern throughout the company, “later determined to infect the entire book of business of BCBSND.”
The Forum reported premium increases for the company’s individual customers in 2010 and in 2011. It’s set to rise again this year by about 14.4 percent for individual coverage.
And here's a little more...
Fischer aired his concerns again on Dec. 10 in an almost-four-hour-long meeting with Noridian’s chief compliance officer, the lawsuit says.
During the meeting, Fischer’s lawsuit says, he informed the compliance officer that the company was violating both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Federal Employees Benefit Health Plan.
The alleged violations could lead to repayments to employer groups and penalties in the millions of dollars, as well as criminal liability in some cases, the lawsuit claims.
So far, it's just a lawsuit, and the courts haven't ruled on it, but I suspect there is some meat in the allegations. We'll see.
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The 2009 BCBS/ND Scandal
I wrote a DKos diary back in 2009 about this:
BREAKING: Health Care Scandal in Kent Conrad's ND (updated).
I got 783 recs and 287 comments (my shining moment on DKos (if I do say so myself)). I sent an email to the Ed Schultz Show on MSNBC -- he's originally from North Dakota -- and he talked about it the next day on his show). But I don't know if it was me that alerted him.
In the 2009 scandal, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of ND was paying out tons of money in bonuses to executives and they were holding sales conferences in the Grand Caymans. When this news hit, they fired the old CEO and hired a new guy. And now they've fired the current CEO.
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My opinion
I think we need to switch to a universal health care system run by the government. Like Medicare or the Veterans' Administration. Everybody gets health care. Paid for by taxes.