Insurance Companies

I'm an 84-year-old man on Social Security with original Medicare and Mutual of Omaha gap insurance. My insurance premium was raised from $262 to $363 a month, a 39% jump. After all my monthly expenses, I have just $240 left. What can I do in the event of another increase in my premiums? If you've had your current Medicare supplement plan for years, it's not surprising that you've seen your costs steadily rise, says Steve Zaleznick, senior Medicare advisor at PlanPrescriber, a Maynard, Mass.-based online provider of Medicare education and plan comparison tools.

Re "Slick questions lead to claim denial," Column, April 23 I am shocked to the bone that travel insurance provider Allianz would deny a claim. We all know how compassionate insurance companies are. They are here to help us with prompt service for legitimate claims. Of course, they are the ones that determine if a claim is indeed legitimate. Is it any wonder that consumers are wary of almost every service available? Chuck Rinaldi Huntington Beach ALSO: Letters: Remembering genocide Letters: The common core revolution Letters: A boost for breakfast in school

In a bid to expedite money to Superstorm Sandy victims, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order tightening rules on insurance companies and relaxing rules for homeowner advocates. According to the executive order, 24 insurance companies in the state must start investigating claims filed by families affected by Sandy within six days instead of the standard 15. Companies are also prohibited from canceling policies of homeowners and small businesses in stricken areas through Dec. 15, according to the Department of Financial Services.

Jean Crump made up fabulous fictional deaths. She wasn't a best-selling author or a fabled storyteller, but a mastermind of an elaborate life insurance scam, federal prosecutors say. For the fictional "Jim Davis," Crump created a bogus death certificate, purchased a grave plot and loaded the casket with items to simulate the weight of a corpse. On Tuesday, her tales got her 18 months in federal prison. Even when confronted during her trial with a secret FBI video of a meeting in July 2006 with a doctor, who unbeknownst to her was a federal informant, she continued to lie about her actions, federal prosecutors said.

Unocal, fresh from its battle with Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens Jr., on Tuesday sued four insurance companies for allegedly canceling liability insurance policies on Unocal's directors the day after Pickens disclosed his 7.9% interest in the Los Angeles-based oil company. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Unocal claims that the insurance companies' actions were illegal and fraudulent.

Consumers saved nearly $1.5 billion in 2011 as a result of rules in President Obama's healthcare law that limit what insurance companies can spend on expenses unrelated to medical care, including profit, a new analysis shows. Much of those savings -- an estimated $1.1 billion -- came in rebates to consumers required because insurers had exceeded the required limits. The study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund also suggests that the Affordable Care Act forced insurers to become more efficient by limiting their administrative expenses, a key goal of the 2010 law. In some cases, insurers passed savings on to consumers in the form of lower premiums and higher spending on medical care, the researchers found.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is changing the way insurers do business. A few years from now, you may see your health plan in a different light. You might even decide you like it - even if it's not that much more affordable. But it's not all good news: Future employers are also expected to shift more costs to employees, and consumers will generally take on more of their healthcare expenses. "A greater role in cost sharing is really forcing consumers to take a hard look at the care they access," said Robin Gelburd, president of Fair Health, a New York City nonprofit that provides healthcare cost information.

SACRAMENTO - State pharmacy regulators have opened an investigation into reports that CVS Caremark Corp. refilled prescriptions and billed insurance companies without patients' consent. Virginia Herold, executive officer of the California Board of Pharmacy, said Tuesday that investigators were probing complaints about the refill practices of the country's largest drugstore chain after Walgreen Co. Herold said the complaints concerning "CVS and refills" were similar to allegations raised in four Los Angeles Times reports published in the last three months.

My father had a name before he became a number. In English, his name would have been Nicholas Frumkin, but in Lithuanian he was Mykolas Frumkinas. In Russian, which we spoke at home in Kaunas, Lithuania, he was Nikolay Grigorievich Frumkin, but his friends called him Kolya. And, of course, to me he was Papa--Daddy. Strangers called him, in the East European fashion, "Engineer Frumkin" because he had an engineering degree from a major German university.

State law requires insurers to include coverage for autism in comprehensive healthcare policies. Now, lawmakers want to go a step further, requiring coverage of a particular autism treatment: applied behavioral analysis. Insurers are resisting. They don't question the effectiveness of the therapy; they just say it doesn't fit the definition of "medical" treatment. Their position reflects how crucial parts of the healthcare system are wedded to the status quo, regardless of what's best for patients.

When the casket that was supposed to hold the earthly remains of “Jim Davis” was finally lowered into the ground, the only thing missing was the late Mr. Davis. The coffin had been weighed down to simulate the approximate heft of a corpse. And Davis was not inside the box. Federal prosecutors said the phony funeral was among the inventive tricks that Jean Crump -- a onetime Long Beach mortician -- used to loot insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. On Tuesday, she was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

WASHINGTON -- In a surprise move that deals a serious blow to Democratic chances of holding the Senate, veteran Montana Sen. Max Baucus has decided not to seek reelection next year, Democratic officials said Tuesday. Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee and was expected to be a major player in the coming debate over reforming the nation's tax system. A Democratic aide said that Baucus'  decision could complicate the tax-overhaul effort and that there might be calls for the lame-duck senator to relinquish his chairmanship before his retirement takes effect.

When the casket that was supposed to hold the earthly remains of Jim Davis was finally lowered into the ground, the only thing missing was the late Mr. Davis. The coffin had been weighed down to simulate the approximate heft of a corpse. And Jim Davis was not inside the box. Federal prosecutors said the phony funeral was among the inventive tricks that Jean Crump - a onetime Long Beach mortician - used to loot insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. On Tuesday, she was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

While most of us face uncertainty with the rollout of healthcare reform, some insurance companies in California have been feeling their oats lately. Here's how they're responding to Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones' warnings that their latest rate increases are unreasonable: Stuff it, Dave. That essentially was the response of Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross after Jones flayed their proposed premium hikes - up to 20% for Blue Shield customers and up to 18% for Anthem.

If it is done right, the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) may well promise uninsured Americans a lot more than cheap, reliable medical care. It can also open the door to the democratic empowerment of millions of poor people, who are often alienated from much of the nation's civic life, by strengthening the organizations that give them a voice. This year more than 30 million uninsured Americans are to begin signing up for Obamacare, but the vast majority of those eligible for either the expanded Medicaid program, or for subsidized private health insurance through state health exchanges, have no idea how to enroll.

Re "GOP revisits Medicare reform," March 3 People get the greatest share of their lifetime medical care after age 65, and Medicare is currently the cheapest solution to that problem. The federal program's overhead is smaller than private insurance, but economists say the program is underfunded. If raising taxes is a tough sell, then increasing the monthly medical insurance premium that most Medicare recipients pay above $104 would improve its financing. That is cheaper than having millions of seniors on the welfare rolls due to medical bankruptcy, which could happen if we place seniors at the mercy of the insurance companies by giving them vouchers.

I just received a letter from my cardiologist's medical group saying they will be charging a $350 annual fee for administrative costs. This is the first time I've seen a medical group charging an annual fee to its patients. Is this what the bad economy has come to? The fee appears exorbitant and discriminatory against less wealthy individuals. Though charging for administrative services isn't yet widely common, the practice is growing, says James Doherty, an attorney who works with physician practices in Columbia, Md. There are a variety of reasons why, adds Dr. Glen Stream, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians: the bad economy, a downward trend in physician reimbursement and a growing list of administrative tasks heaped onto physician practices by insurance companies.

If it is done right, the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) may well promise uninsured Americans a lot more than cheap, reliable medical care. It can also open the door to the democratic empowerment of millions of poor people, who are often alienated from much of the nation's civic life, by strengthening the organizations that give them a voice. This year more than 30 million uninsured Americans are to begin signing up for Obamacare, but the vast majority of those eligible for either the expanded Medicaid program, or for subsidized private health insurance through state health exchanges, have no idea how to enroll.

Money, money, money. So much money. From places only the most sophisticated financial followers truly understand, not that they always agree. Last year Guggenheim Partners formed a group to buy the Dodgers and spent a record $2.1 billion on the purchase. In a remarkably short time, it skyrocketed the team payroll to a baseball record $230 million. They're dropping another $100 million or so on a quick little makeover of Dodger Stadium. Yet exactly where all this money has come from remains something of a mystery, credit going to Guggenheim's sudden explosion on the Wall Street scene and Chief Executive Mark Walter's preference for privacy.

Re "Another look at Booker T.," Opinion, Feb. 12 The Republicans seem so enamored of simplistic solutions to complex problems. Dr. Benjamin Carson's talk at the National Prayer Breakfast is a good example of this. His idea of health savings accounts sounds logical until you examine how insurance companies work. I have two daughters with serious health problems and a great granddaughter who was born with tuberous sclerosis. If they had to find their own coverage, no insurer would accept them.