Lindeen visits Havre during tour of state

State Auditor Monica Lindeen was in Havre Tuesday, part of a weeklong tour of Indian Country and hospitals across the state to discuss health insurance issues such as rising individual rates and the state's recent Medicaid expansion.

Lindeen, accompanied by her legal counsel, former state legislator Jesse Laslovich, visited Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Monday night. They met with staff at Northern Montana Hospital Tuesday before heading to Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. In the coming days Lindeen and Laslovich plan on visiting the Crow and Fort Peck Indian reservations, along with hospitals in Glendive and Miles City.

A Democrat in her second term, Lindeen is prohibited from running for re-election next year due to term limits, and is instead running for Secretary of State.

Laslovich, also a Democrat, has launched his campaign to succeed Lindeen.

In an interview with the Havre Daily News that day, Lindeen and Laslovich talked about contracting scams and the cost of health insurance.

Scams

On the Fourth of July, hail storms struck communities across the Hi-Line, resulting in significant property damages. Houses, especially roofs, sustained some of the worst damage, bringing a wave of contractors eager for work.

With the flurry of work and insurance filings, though, came complaints of unscrupulous practices. There were reports of out-of-town contractors going door to door using high pressure tactics to persuade owners to enter into questionable contracts.

This led to contractors, in some cases, performing shoddy work and insurance companies refusing to pay claims, they said.

Elsewhere, there were people masquerading as public adjusters who in fact did not have the necessary qualifications needed to legally operate in Montana.

"The problem is these folks were going door to door in Havre saying 'I can repair your roof, your siding or whatever the damage is,'" said Laslovich. "They were acting like public adjusters, but they weren't licensed."

Past incidents brought problems such as these to light and during the last legislative session, Lindeen requested and got revisions to the public adjusters statute. The new provisions said all such contracts had to be filed with the state auditor's office and must include sections stating that there are certain practices prohibited from being covered and if these stipulations aren't included in the contract then the contract is not valid.

The auditor's office also made sure it had a presence in communities affected by the hail storm to help guide consumers through the maze of regulations and requirements needed. Lindeen said this allowed people to file their claims and educate themselves about their options under their insurance in a more efficient way.

Laslovich said a big part of what the auditor's job is not only to police the insurance companies, but also to keep the public informed.

"Part of it, the effort is educational," said Laslovich. "Just getting out and telling folks not to sign these contracts."

Health insurance costs

Last week, the state auditor's office revealed there will be a jump in individual health insurance rates for some 41,000 Montanans next year.

Each year, the auditor's office publishes the health insurance rates for the coming year. Though those who get insurance through their employers or through a government program such as Medicaid or Medicare will not be affected, those in the individual marketplace will not see an increase. Those who purchase insurance through the federal Healthcare.gov website using a federal tax credit tied to their income levels will also see little if any uptick in their costs.

Those affected, Lindeen said, will primarily be those who either have not taken advantage of or are not eligible for the tax credits provided under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Lindeen said the average rate increase for health insurance plans sold by the three companies offering plans in Montana: Blue Cross Blue Shield Montana, PacificSource and the Montana Health Co-Op will rise between 5.6 and 6.8 percent according to a press release put out by Lindeen's office.

Though she did negotiate changes in rates with the insurance companies, Lindeen said the auditor is not able to set or deny rates.

"This was the best we could do in this case," said Lindeen who called the rate increases unfortunate.

Lindeen attributed the increases to what she referred to as "pent-up demand" for health services, or the flood of new people with serious medical conditions entering into the health care system who were previously uninsured until 2014, when the Affordable Care Act was implemented. Because of this, she said, more people have been using the medical care system and causing rates to rise.

Health insurances providers last year may have also artificially lowered rates as they competed for consumers in an expanding marketplace. Lindeen said many companies likely increased rates for next year to compensate for the lower rates set for this year.

Such increases she said were likely short-term.

Lindeen said the long-term solution to driving down the cost of insurance is to lower the cost of providing medical care by encouraging preventive treatment. That can be done by transforming the health care system from one that responds to severe medical conditions that have advanced and requiring more costly procedures, to one that detects and treats symptoms in there earlier stages.

There is a small pool of people who have serious medical problems, they said. By treating these people early in their disease, they can save money in the long run.

Laslovich added that the health insurance market system needs to be more transparent when it comes to providing data on the cost of care.