There appears to be a common misunderstanding that all health insurance companies

[pnwmom]

are for-profit corporations. It's true that many of them are; and it's true that Blue Cross/Blue Shield, to take one example, changed its structure in 1994 to allow members of its association to become for-profit companies.

But others remain non-profit companies, including Regence, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield company that serves the Pacific Northwest.

And it could be that over time, if government regulation or cost controls shrink profits, the for-profit companies will leave the field once again to the non-profits. And everyone will be better off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Regence_Group

The Regence Group is a nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield licensed health insurance company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. It is licensed to sell health insurance plans under the Blue Cross Blue Shield name in Utah, and Oregon. It is licensed under the Blue Shield name in Idaho and western Washington. Its non-Blue subsidiary uses the Asuris name in eastern Washington, because Premera acquired that territory's Blue Shield license in 1998 when it merged with Spokane's Medical Services Corporation.

Regence has 2.5 million members in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. It has the largest enrollment of any health insurer in Oregon[1]and Washington[2]. It has offices in each state served, and employs 5,500 people.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. They might not be "for profit"

But that doesn't mean that they're exempt for the crooked ways of the for profit industry.



Regence BlueShield Loses $10.2 Million while Mark Ganz Takes Home a 22.6 Percent Salary Increase

May 16, 2012 -- Mark Ganz, president and CEO of Cambia Health Solutions took home one of the biggest paychecks in the Pacific Northwest, after he earned $1,565,029 in salary and benefits from Oregon and Washington.

http://thelundreport.org/resource/regence_blueshield_loses_102_million_while_mark_ganz_takes_home_a_226_percent_salary_increa

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. "Non profits" stock piling money.

Non profits stock piling money and raising rates.

Nonprofit health-insurance companies in Washington don't have shareholders. But they are facing demands for the $2.4 billion they've amassed while handing steep rate hikes to customers.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017460805_surplus09m.html

[antigop]

3. Wendell Potter:Nonprofit Insurers: Reaping Profits at the Expense of the Consumer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/nonprofit-insurers-are-de_b_885029.html

According to public filings, Kaiser has made a whopping $5 billion in profits since 2009. That's more than all but a small handful of the country's for-profit insurance corporations have made. During the first three months of this year, Kaiser made more than $920 million in profits. Yet because it has been able to maintain its legal structure as a nonprofit, it doesn't pay taxes on that money like the for-profits do.

One of the ways the company has been able to keep profitability strong is by demanding double-digit rate increases from its customers. Earlier this year, Kaiser announced it would raise rates on many of its policyholders in California by as much as 23 percent. No wonder it doesn't want the state's insurance commissioner to have the power to say "no" to such increases.

So just how did it happen that Kaiser and many of the country's other nonprofit health plans, especially the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, get to be so profitable?

According to Andy Kurz, former chief financial officer of Blue Cross of Wisconsin who, like me, has become a vocal critic of insurance companies, you can blame it on Wall Street, even though the nonprofits are not publicly traded companies.

[pnwmom]

5. Interesting. Thank! n/t

[On the Road]

4. Kaiser Permanente is Also Organized as a Nonprofit

although it's been criticized for practices felt to be inconsistent with that status. In fact, in Oregon, the two biggest providers are nonprofit.

Although it may not be the main driver in high rates, executive salaries with Regence look like they're more reasonable than for many industries. A study in Oregon concluded that for Kaiser, "the group’s executives make “substantially less” than for-profit companies of
similar size."

http://oregon.mainstreetalliance.org/files/2012/04/20120330_PBJ_Experts_say_pay_of_health-care_executives_seems_reasonable.pdf