Friday, August 10, 2007
SCC says Anthem must keep Va. call centers
The decision was hailed as positive for businesses, doctors and patients.
The latest from The Ticker blog
Anthem health insurance must keep many of its customer service offices in Virginia to make sure customers and doctors' offices have good communications with the company, the State Corporation Commission said Thursday.
Anthem must keep using its Virginia call centers that provide daily and direct communication among the company, its in-state customers, doctors' offices and other health care providers, the SCC said.
"This is wonderful news for Roanoke, for the state of Virginia, and most of all for our patients," said Doug Call, president of Virginia Prosthetics on Williamson Road in Roanoke.
Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, and a member of a legislative commission that reviews long-term health care issues, sounded a theme similar to Call's.
"I'm excited by this ruling because if Anthem were to move all these medical management and case management jobs out of Virginia, it would make things so much harder for consumers and medical practitioners," Nutter said.
"It's a rare, important win."
For Call's prosthetics business, the decision means Anthem-insured people who need artificial limbs aren't likely to encounter really long waits for preauthorization of claim payments.
People insured by other companies often face delays when Virginia Prosthetics' preauthorization calls are routed to centers in foreign countries, where a language barrier prevents efficient communication, Call said.
Nutter said Anthem conceded during a hearing before the SCC that it planned to route many Virginia calls to centers in Ohio or to other countries.
Anthem said during its effort to win the SCC's permission to move its work that the changes it had in mind would not threaten jobs at its call center in Roanoke.
The Medical Society of Virginia, a doctors association, said it was pleased by the SCC decision.
"The services that Anthem will be required to retain in Virginia are those that would have had the most serious and negative implications should they have been allowed to move out of state or offshore," said Dr. Craig Hensle of Woodbridge, president of the society.
Anthem will be allowed to move sales efforts and other parts of its call center work outside Virginia to capture economies of scale created after it became part of WellPoint, a multistate insurance company. The expansion led to duplicated services within WellPoint, the company said.
The SCC granted Anthem's request to shift some of its work outside Virginia when it involves less customer-intensive tasks.
Those work categories include actuarial, marketing, distribution management, underwriting, community relations and sales.
Nutter said he understood Wellpoint's argument that its consolidation resulted in many offices doing the same work, and that it could be consolidated into fewer offices to save money.
On the other hand, Nutter said, "I often hear from people who have specific medical problems and are being denied medical procedures and are having to deal with somebody on the other side of the world and walk them through it.
"That's not easy when you're sick," he said.
Nutter also noted the SCC left the door open for Anthem to renew its request later.
"I think we're still going to have to be vigilant on this," he said.
