Nonprofit Insurer To Share Surplus With Customers

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Dakota will be giving about $27 million in reserves back to policyholders starting in mid-November.

North Dakota Insurance Commissioner James Poolman asked North Dakota Blue, Bismarck, N.D., to make the refunds after he concluded that the level of reserves at the nonprofit mutual insurance company had grown higher than it ought to be.

The refund amounts to about 80% of August premium revenue, according to officials at the North Dakota Insurance Department.

The refund will go to Nodakare program subscribers and Noridian student health plan subscribers as well as to commercial customers, because the commercial, Nodacare and Noridian student health plan lines all have contributed to increases in North Dakota Blue’s reserves in recent years, the company says.