As promised, New York’s Department of Financial Services (DOFS) has posted copies of every health insurer’s rate applications on it’s website.  This is really a huge step in bringing transparency and accountability to the whole insurance rate review process, and for that we are extremely grateful.

The downside (and this is really no surprise)…it ain’t all rainbows and butterflies. Don’t get me wrong – there is a lot of useful information in these materials.  There’s just a whole heck of a lot of it. One of the rate applications for HealthNow is – and I absolutely kid you not – 28,351 pages long.  And no, that is not a typo. There is also a lot of variation between plans in terms of what is included and how it’s laid out.

But, HCFANY has never been one to back down from a challenge!  We’re taking a good look at this stuff to see what it’s all about and figure out how to make it useful for folks who want to use the information to comment on their own plan’s proposed rate increases.  So, stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, it’s all up on the web now if anybody else wants to have at it.  Click here to go directly to the DOFS Health Insurance Rate Review Page with all the information on proposed rates, approved rates, and the corresponding insurer rate applications (the new stuff).