Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana is paying $1 million to the state to settle more than three hundred consumer complaints.
State Insurance Commissioner Monica Lindeen says the complaints mostly came from people who bought policies on the new health insurance exchange last year. Lindeen says every insurance company had problems with the rollout, but the problems with Blue Cross-Blue Shield were extreme.
“The amount of time that consumers were having to spend to actually get a live body on the phone to speak to about their issue, having to make multiple phone calls back to the company over the course of weeks."
The state’s legal counsel, Jesse Laslovich, says many people got cancelation letters by mistake.
“So if you put yourself in the consumer’s position, that I’ve paid $750.00 that month for my premium, or $500.00, and then I get a cancelation notice for not paying the premium they’re rightfully angry, and that happened way too much."
Complaints about Blue Cross customer service tripled from 2013 to 2014, when the new exchange came on-line, and Blue Cross was taken over by new owners. BCBS spokesman John Doran says they take responsibility for handling the transition badly.
“We had some significant enrollment, and then of course there were some challenges with enrollment during the ACA period.For instance there were difficulties with the website working, and then there were difficulties in communication, of information files or data files.”
The settlement between Blue Cross and the state avoids legal action, but customers will not see any of the one-million-dollar penalty. Half will go into the state general fund, and the rest will go to the new Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery at Montana State University in Bozeman.