John Gifford

John Gifford writes about health care--- more particularly on the health insurance industry.

Last week's Reuters story by Murray Waas detailing WellPoint's targeting of breast cancer patients for rescission brought a swift response from WellPoint. That response included correspondence from WellPoint's Director of Corporate Public Relations, Jon Mills, pointing me to their official response to the story.

It also, however, likely resulted in WellPoint's decision to implement health insurance reforms regarding rescission before 2014, when the new law requires it. Mr. Mills e-mails the press release:

(Indianapolis, April 27, 2010) WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP), the nation’s largest health insurer, announced that it will implement federal legislation regarding rescissions effective May 1. This is well ahead of the effective date contained in the legislation. WellPoint is the first insurer to implement the provision.

That 2006 policy change, perhaps not so coincidentally, came after some great investigative reporting from the LA Times' Lisa Girion, that California Blue Cross "routinely canceled policies of sick members after looking for inconsistencies -- not fraud -- in their applications." The article was based on secret testimony from a Blue Cross employee who said that, as reported by Murray Waas.