(Baltimore) – Maryland Insurance Commissioner Therese M. Goldsmith today announced approved premium rates for health insurance plans to be offered to small employers for 2015. Competition and two decades of reforms in the State’s small group market helped to keep rate changes modest. Thirteen companies filed to sell in the small group market next year.
Below is a list of carriers and their average approved change in rates (from the first quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2015):
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Aetna Health Inc.: +0.5%;
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Aetna Life Insurance Co.: +0.5%
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CareFirst BlueChoice Inc.: +5.8%
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CareFirst of Maryland Inc.: +4.7%
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Coventry Health and Life Insurance Co.: +10.9%
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Coventry Health Care of Delaware Inc.: +8.5%
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Evergreen Health Cooperative Inc.: 0.0%
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Group Hospitalization and Medical Services Inc. (a CareFirst company): +4.7%
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Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States Inc.: +7.8%
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MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Co. (a UnitedHealthCare company): -2.6%
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Optimum Choice Inc. (a UnitedHealthCare company): -2.6%
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UnitedHealthCare Insurance Co.: -2.6%
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UnitedHealthCare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc.: -2.6%
“Maryland has a competitive small group health insurance market,” Commissioner Goldsmith said. “With such a broad range of rates and plans, business owners may find it in their best interest to review their options for 2015.”
Monthly per-member premiums for a 40-year-old living in the Baltimore area range from $243.57 to $443.68 at the silver level, before any employer contribution. Examples of rates for each carrier, by region and metal level, are available on the Maryland Insurance Administration’s website. (See images to the right.) Sample rates do not reflect any employer contribution.
In most cases, approved rates are similar to those carriers requested. For nine of the 13 carriers, the difference between requested and approved rates varies by 1% or less. The biggest difference is a 6.8% reduction in the rate increase requested by Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company.
In Maryland, only those rates approved by the Insurance Commissioner may be charged to policyholders. The Commissioner must disapprove or modify any premium rate filing where, based on statistical analysis and reasonable assumptions, the proposed rates appear to be inadequate, excessive in relationship to the benefits offered, or unfairly discriminatory.
To assist the Commissioner in making rate decisions, Maryland Insurance Administration actuaries reviewed the data, methodologies, and assumptions companies used to develop their proposed rates. The Commissioner also considered other relevant factors, including the impact premium rates will have on Maryland consumers, in determining whether to approve, modify or deny requested rates. Summaries of each rate decision are available on the MIA’s rate review website at http://www.healthrates.mdinsurance.state.md.us. Sample rate filings do not affect health insurance plans that provide coverage for most Marylanders, such as those offered by large employers or employers who self-insure; “grandfathered” plans purchased before March 2010; or Federal plans, such as Medicare, Tricare and federal employee plans.
The relative stability of small group rates is the second announcement affecting small business owners and their employees that the MIA has made in recent weeks. On August 27th, the Insurance Commissioner announced that small businesses in Maryland will be able to streamline administration of their employees’ health insurance programs starting December 1, 2014, thanks to an alternative tiered system they can use to allocate premiums. This alternative composite premium methodology was proposed by the Maryland Insurance Administration and approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Sample Rates:
(Click image to enlarge)
Baltimore Metro Area |
DC Metro Area |
Eastern and Southern Maryland |
Western Maryland |
About the Maryland Insurance Administration
The Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) is an independent State agency charged with regulating Maryland’s $26 billion insurance industry. For more information about the MIA, please visit www.mdinsurance.state.md.us or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MDInsuranceAdmin or Twitter at @MD_Insurance.
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