Insurance

Nonprofit insurer Blue Shield of California said it resolved a lengthy contract dispute with UCLA and other UC system hospitals over reimbursements for patient care. Effective Sept. 1, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital will be back in the Blue Shield network. The San Francisco health insurer said this new contract with all UC providers statewide runs through June 30, 2015. The previous contract expired Dec. 31 as the two sides bickered over rising medical costs.

The Times' Noam Levey stitched together the clues that Mitt Romney has given about his plans for redoing healthcare reform , concluding that the GOP presidential candidate's strategy is "in crucial ways more revolutionary - and potentially more disruptive" than the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. That's because Romney wants to shift from a system in which employers are the primary supplier of insurance to one in which individuals...

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney did not flip-flop Wednesday when he branded the insurance mandate in the 2010 healthcare reform law a tax. Instead, he merely shot himself in the foot. Writing for himself and the court's four liberal justices, conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. held last week that the requirement that virtually all adult Americans obtain insurance coverage or pay an extra amount to the Internal Revenue Service was, in effect, a tax on the uninsured.

For the second time in a month, a California Chamber of Commerce political action committee funded in part by major insurance companies is bankrolling TV ads to help Republican Mike Villines in his race against Democrat Dave Jones for state insurance commissioner. In campaign finance disclosure documents, the deep-pocketed chamber reported that it was spending $280,234 to fund "media production" for television advertisements that oppose Jones. The same report showed that the chamber's political action committee, called JobsPAC, received six contributions from insurance company interests totaling $387,000.

Citing the city's failure to hire a new city manager as well as recent officer-involved shootings, Maywood's insurance agency has terminated coverage because it views the municipality as too high a risk, according to city officials. In a notice delivered to the city last week, the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority said it would end all general liability and workers' compensation coverage effective July 1, according to Interim City Manager Angela Spaccia. "This termination potentially puts the city in the position where it cannot continue to operate its police department and provide other city services," a statement on the city's website announced.

The state of California is likely to receive tens of millions of dollars more from insurance companies to clean up the Stringfellow Acid Pits toxic waste dump as a result of a ruling Thursday by the California Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision, the high court said consecutive insurance policies by various companies required each to pay up to their policy limits for damage caused by the Riverside County waste site. The companies wanted to restrict liability to just a share of the damage that occurred during the time each insurer's policy was in effect.

The state insurance commissioner is one of the most powerful consumer advocates in California, wielding unique influence over how auto, property and health coverage is priced and sold. With the current occupant, Republican Steve Poizner, running for governor, the race has attracted three state assemblymen who are barred by term limits from seeking reelection — Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), Hector de la Torre (D-South Gate) and Mike Villines (R-Clovis). Brian D. Fitzgerald, a longtime enforcement attorney in the Department of Insurance, faces Villines in the GOP primary, and four candidates are running unopposed in smaller parties.

Allstate Insurance Co. released its annual list containing information about which cars are the most and least expensive to insure. The list is based on such factors as which cars suffer more damage in accidents, cost more to repair and are stolen more often. Much lower than avg. Chrysler 5th Avenue Dodge Caravan Dodge Grand Caravan Plymouth Voyager Plymouth Grand Voyager Saab 9000 Volvo 240 Much higher than avg.