Between 2004 and 2008, insurers rescinded 1,464 health policies or certificates based on conditions that were not diagnosed before the insureds applied for coverage.
The Regulatory Framework Task Force at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., has published that figure in a draft summary of results from a recent rescission data call.
The task force sent the data call in October to 52 companies that wrote individual major medical policies or individually underwritten certificates from 2004 to 2008. The 46 companies that responded covered about 70% of the people covered by individual major medical policies during the period studied.
The task force ended up exempting 3 companies that did not write the kind of coverage subject to the study, and one state decided not to participate, because its companies had already responded to a similar survey conducted by Rep. Henry Calif, D-Calif., in October 2008.
The insurers that did participate said they had rescinded 27,246 of 6.7 million health policies issued during the period study, which translated into a rescission rate of about 3.7 rescissions for every 1,000 policies or certificates written, task force officials report.