N.C. Blue may take $400 million individual policy hit

The Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer is reporting that a large North Carolina health insurer may have lost as much as $400 million total on individual health insurance policies in 2014 and 2015.

An executive at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina told agents and brokers participating in a webinar last week that the losses were responsible for the company’s previously announced decision to suspend payment of agent and broker commissions for individual major medical policies with start dates from April 1 through Dec. 1, according to John Murawski, a reporter at the paper.

See also: 3 reasons the PPACA exchange plan “blahs” could be serious

In response to a question about the webinar, a company representative emailed a copy of the Jan. 28 press release announcing the change in the company’s compensation arrangements. The rep neither confirmed nor denied the News & Observer report.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials, state insurance regulators and insurers developed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) “open enrollment period” enrollment limits to discourage healthy consumers from seeing the PPACA medical underwriting limits as a chance to wait until they get sick to pay for coverage. The open enrollment period for 2016 ended Sunday.

See also: 5 mysterious 2016 open enrollment period wildcards

Consumers who want to buy 2016 coverage now must show that they have a good excuse, such as the loss of existing coverage or a move to a new market, to qualify for a special enrollment period (SEP) coverage. Applicants for individual coverage must qualify for SEPs whether they buy their coverage through a PPACA exchange or outside the exchange system.

North Carolina uses the HHS HealthCare.gov system to provide PPACA exchange services for its residents.

SEP sales accounted for more than 10 percent of 2015 HealthCare.gov individual plan sales nationwide, according to HHS data for the first half of 2015.