Penn Treaty Policies Could Wind Up With Former Conseco Unit, Ario Says

Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel S. Ario says his goal is to get Penn Treaty America Corp.’s troubled long term care insurance businesses out of rehabilitation and that he is “still optimistic” that he will be able to do so.

But he might even consider placing Penn Treaty’s older LTC policies with a new state-sponsored entity that his department created in November to take over older policies from Conseco Inc., Carmel, Ind., Ario said in an interview.

On Jan. 6, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court gave Ario permission to take over Penn Treaty Network America Insurance Company and American Network Insurance Company, the two principal subsidiaries of Penn Treaty, Allentown, Pa. The units had been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy since October, when company officials announced a reinsurer had pulled out of a deal to back their older LTC policies.

Penn Treaty executives say they asked the state regulator to put the units in rehabilitation after they were unable to secure replacement financing or to find a buyer for the units or for their policies.

It was the second time in recent months that Ario was forced to act to rescue financially troubled LTC insurance carriers. In November, he approved Conseco Inc.’s spinoff of its LTC insurance unit, Conseco Senior Health Insurance Company, as an independent trust. This converted the subsidiary into a new entity, Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, thereby relieving Conseco, Carmel, Ind., of responsibility for 140,000 older policies.

Ario acknowledges he is concerned that the financial woes of Penn Treaty and Conseco could undermine consumer confidence in the LTC insurance industry. He drew a distinction, however, between the old business written by the 2 companies and other carriers in the 1980s and 1990s, which he said were “underpriced,” and policies being written by LTC carriers today.

“Now there are new [National Association of Insurance Commissioner] standards to ensure new business written since 2002 is subject to more strict review by the states, to make sure pricing is adequate,” he says.

As for Penn Treaty, Ario says he still thinks the LTC units either will find a buyer or be returned to solvency. His department, which is effectively running most departments of Penn Treaty, is negotiating with an unnamed potential buyer that Penn Treaty had been talking with before going into rehabilitation.

“I don’t know of anyone who’d buy the whole business,” he says. “That’s all part of the discussion. Our first priority is to get a full accounting.”