MOUNTLAKE TERRACE —Premera Blue Cross is offering new promises about how it will operate, including how it will set health insurance premiums, if the insurer is allowed to become a for-profit company.
The company proposed the additional conditions last week to the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner, which has been reviewing Premera’s for-profit conversion plan since last fall.
The additions are meant to address specific issues raised by state regulators, said Scott Forslund, spokesman for the Mountlake Terrace-based insurer.
"The motivating force was a desire to listen to concerns that were expressed and to try to respond," Forslund said. "This followed about two months of time when there were pretty extensive discussions between Premera, state officials and their consultants."
The new promises Premera put forth include:
Previously, Premera wanted to set up one foundation to cover both states. The state attorney general’s office also had qualms about Premera’s control over the foundation as it was originally proposed.
Despite the changes, Premera’s plan to switch from a nonprofit firm to a for-profit, stockholder-held corporation still has opposition, notably from several groups representing hospitals and doctors.
Premera, the state’s largest health insurer and one of the county’s biggest private employers, has asserted since it applied for the conversion in 2002 that becoming a for-profit company with shareholders would help raise capital to improve services and technology.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler is set to decide on the application by July 19.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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