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September 17, 2002 at 08:00 PM
NU Online News Service, Sept. 17, 6:15 p.m. – Oregon insurance regulators are trying to make it harder for insurers to sell workers individual health insurance policies at the worksite.
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has proposed regulatory changes that would prohibit insurers from collecting individual health policy premiums by “list billing,” or sending bills that list the premiums due from each worker at a given employer to the employer.
Insurers could still sell individual health policies through the worksite, but the insurers would have to arrange to collect the premiums from the individual workers, officials say.
Oregon regulators say they are making the changes because they believe Oregon statutes require insurers to provide coverage for employees of small employers through group plans, rather than individual plans.
“Individual plans do not provide the same level of benefits and protections that small group plans do,” according to a statement of need written by Joel Ario, the Oregon department’s insurance administrator.
