The Los Angeles Times (4/30, Helfand) reports, "California health insurer Anthem Blue Cross is withdrawing rate increases of as much as 39% for thousands of California policyholders after state insurance regulators rejected the proposals, officials announced Thursday." Anthem, which is "California's largest for-profit insurance company, will re-file its rates in May, company executives said, but would not say how big the increases will be or how soon they might be in place. The rates affect an estimated 800,000 Californians who buy individual policies."

        The AP (4/30, Rogers) adds that the withdrawal came after "an independent audit determined the company's justification for raising premiums was based on flawed data, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said Thursday." According to Poizner, "The current application that was withdrawn today was just flawed." He said that "it contained mathematical errors, and in some instances, double counting of data." Poizner also suggested that new rate increase "would be substantially less than the original."

        According to the San Francisco Chronicle (4/30, Colliver), "While the insurer attributed its decision in part to 'inadvertent miscalculations' it made in calculating medical costs, the state Department of Insurance said an independent actuarial review revealed substantial errors that were out of synch with medical inflation trends." But, "WellPoint, for its part, said...it had not seen the full version of the state's review, and denied it was the impetus for withdrawing the rate hikes, saying instead that it was revising its rates to comply with the requirements of the new federal health law." The Wall Street Journal (4/30, Mathews, subscription required), the Orange County Register (4/30, Perkes) and the San Francisco Business Times (4/30, Rauber) also cover the story.

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