NU Online News Service, March 8, 2004, 4:45 p.m. EST – A New York insurance regulator says his state's health insurers are doing a lousy job of supplying risk-adjustment data.[@@]
Carriers in New York's individual and small group market are supposed to share the risk of insuring "high cost persons" by participating in an industrywide risk-adjustment pool.
The state set up the risk pool to replace an older system that put more emphasis on members' age and other demographic factors than on members' health status.
The New York State Insurance Department used letters, face-to-face meetings and Web postings to explain the new pool data requirements.
"Despite the information provided by the Insurance Department, almost all of the 74 companies subject to the pools failed to meet the initial filing deadline of Jan. 31, 2003, for the 6 submissions covering years July 1, 1999 – Jan. 1, 2003," Thomas Zyra, New York's health bureau co-chief, writes in a circular letter.
