Under Fire for Health Insurance Rate Hikes, WellPoint Goes To Court to Defend Denial of Care

Feb. 23, 2010 — -- As its chief executive heads to Washington to face Congressional outrage over dramatic rate hikes, WellPoint is facing the accusation that it "put profits over people" in handling the claim of a California man who needed an urgent liver transplant.

The allegation was made on Monday during opening arguments of a trial targeting WellPoint and its subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross for denying an out-of-state liver transplant for Ephram Nehme, a San Fernando Valley businessman who says the insurer's denial forced him to pay $205,000 out-of-pocket to get the procedure that ultimately saved his life.

Consumer advocates have highlighted the Nehme case as an extreme example of what they say is a common tool used by health-insurance companies to minimize losses and increase profits – denying care by claiming certain procedures are not "medically necessary."

"Denials are a great way to have an individually-insured person pay you premiums for years but dare they get sick and need your insurance, you can selectively deny the most expensive surgeries," said Jerry Flanagan, healthcare advocate for Consumer Watchdog, a California-based group that advocates for health-insurance reform.

On Wednesday, WellPoint CEO Angela Braly will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday to explain the company's decision to raise premium rates 39 percent for individual policy holders in California. President Obama has seized on the rate hikes to relaunch his health-insurance reform effort.

With WellPoint employees expected to take the witness stand in coming weeks, the trial promises to offer a rare glimpse at how the nation's largest for-profit health insurer determines whether a treatment is "medically necessary" at a time when the insurance giant is taking intense heat for raising premium rates on individual policyholders in California by as much 39 percent.

In the fall of 2006, Anthem Blue Cross authorized a transplant at UCLA for Nehme who needed a new liver after developing cirrhotic liver disease. Nehme says his doctor informed him that a transplant at UCLA would not be available in time and instructed him to put his name on a list at the Clarian Medical Center at Indiana University where the wait time was much shorter.