Health Insurance Landscape Continues to Change in State

(To read the list of the largest insurance companies in Arkansas, click .)

The fallout from a 2004 law that allowed Medicare recipients to choose from a large number of approved policies underwritten by private insurance companies has continued to shake up Arkansas Business' list of the largest health insurance companies operating in the state.

While Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield still is the dominant health insurance company with Arkansas premium of $946.7 million – including $208.9 million for the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program –  other companies have made a strong showing on this year's list, which is ranked by Arkansas premium written in 2007.

New to the list is Care Improvement Plus of Baltimore. It reported Arkansas premium of $76.5 million, which is high enough to land the company in fifth place, according to data supplied by the Arkansas Insurance Department.

Care Improvement is a Medicare-only offering and doesn't write group or commercial insurance, said the company's executive vice president, Paul Serini.

"We only insure Medicare beneficiaries who have one of four serious chronic illnesses," which are diabetes, heart failure, emphysema and kidney failure, he said. "One of the reasons our premiums is so high is that it is a difficult and challenging population to provide care for and manage well."

Serini said Care Improvement started marketing to potential customers in Arkansas in the fall of 2006 and first started writing insurance in January 2007.

He said the company has about 8,600 members in Arkansas and expects to add another 1,600 in 2009.

Also making moves on this year's list is Mercy Health Plans of Chesterfield, Mo., which reported Arkansas premium of $14 million, which is good enough for ninth place.

Sisters of Mercy Health System of St. Louis decided to introduce its Mercy Health Plans insurance product in 2006 after the Patient Protection Act of 1995 – the "any willing provider" law – was upheld by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005. Under the law, insurance companies are required to pay the same benefits to any provider willing to accept the same terms as the incumbent in-network providers.

Mercy Health Plans Executive Director Brett Krikman couldn't be reached for comment last week, but in an e-mail to Arkansas Business in August, he said Mercy was opening an office in Rogers and has about 25,000 members in Arkansas.

Kirkman also said the company's individual health insurance product was adding about 500 members a month.

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