Karen Weldin Stewart Decides That Maybe She Does Have a Job To Do
Today’s News Journal updates the status of the investigations into the denials of prescribed tests for heart patients by BCBSD. Aetna is also now part of the doctors’ complaints — Aetna is using the same pre-authorization firm as BCBSD.
Now that the News Journal has been looking into this pretty intently, and Senator Jay Rockefeller (from West Virginia) has asked for information on these denials, we find that Delaware’s IC has decided to open up her own investigation:
Stewart said her office will contract with third-party examiners to probe the pre-authorization procedures of the three carriers.
The insurance department announced plans to open its investigation after receiving several more complaints of pre-authorization denials in the past week, Stewart said Saturday from Denver, where she is meeting with insurance commissioners from other states. Stewart could not put a precise number on the amount of complaints that have reached her office, but said she needed to see evidence of a pattern of questionable behavior before opening a formal investigation.
“A pattern is three [complaints], at least three,” Stewart said.
An outsourced review of BCBSD pre-authorization procedures (why can’t the already paid staff do this?), no idea how many complaints received (really? After almost a week this issue has been in the spotlight?) and her definition of a pattern.
Check. And after all of this there will be public hearings. But months down the road. Wonder if these get outsourced too.
Check again.
So the News Journal finds a pattern and the IC’s office will take months to look into it. One of the things I wonder is if there were people who the News Journal has reported on here who actually did complain to the ICs office too. We already know that a request from Senator Jay Rockefeller was enough for BCBSD to loosen up their requirements. The question at end is whether Delawareans with pre-authorization issues will always need to count on the attention of Senator Rockefeller to get local insurance companies to do what they get paid to.
Tags: Insurance Commissioner
It will be outsourced to one of her cronies with the usual no-bid contract. Count on it. Another opportunity for everyone including Stewart to get paid at state expense.
Her bootlicker Jacobson posted some lame excuse on the DOI website. Looks like the outrage on Del Lib about outsourcing this issue to one of the many Stewart cronies was a big motivator. So they’re assigning Gene Reed who was recently thrown the bone of deputy commissioner. Remember she screwed him big time in the primary, made unsupported allegations about his supposed campaign finance irregularites. All the time she was the one who cheated. Seems to me she said in her campaign she’d handle all consumer complaints. Another lie. Surprise surprise.
I was all set to vote for Gene Reed despite his father’s corrupt handling of the New Castle County Democratic Party. But, when he didn’t have Idea One at a candidate’s forum, and the alternatives were KWS, and that guy who used to be from Wilmington and is now from Sussex County who shouted all the time (Tom Savage?), for the first time ever I chose not to vote for any of ’em. I’m not sure the corruption factor would be any different were the primary results different.
Karen Stewart is funneling millions of dollars in insurers’ premium taxes the DOI collects that belong to the State of Delaware to her apparent cronies and campaign contributors.
On Tuesday, March 30, 2010, the Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI), published a scathing indictment of Stewart’s questionable and seemingly corrupt way of running the Delaware Department of Insurance, titled “Not in the Public Interest.” http://www.caesarrodney.org/index.cfm?ref=45100
The CRI article details particulars of what many commenters here have long predicted — she’s a show pony who has turned the office over to highly-paid outsiders. Partisan organization or not, CRI deserves praise. This is something the News Journal should have done first.