Vermont regulator demands $3 million payback from insurer

Burlington Free Press: "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont overpaid its former chief executive officer by $3 million over an eight-year period and has been ordered to pay the money back to its subscribers by 2012 in the form of reduced premiums, a top state regulator said Wednesday. The action by the state Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration Department follows last year's disclosure that William Milnes, the nonprofit firm's former CEO, received a $7.2 million payout when he stepped down in 2008." But, the state agency says his payments violated a law limiting reimbursement to the amount necessary "to perform his functions as head of a nonprofit health-benefits provider" (Hemingway, 6/3).

Rutland Herald: "State regulators have reached an agreement with [the insurer] under which the company will reduce its overhead by $3 million to make up for excessive pay to the nonprofit's former head." Paulette Thabult, the state agency's chief, said, "It is going to come out of administrative expenses of the company. It is going to put additional pressure on the company to operate more efficiently and to address rising medical trends" (Porter, 6/3).

Associated Press/Fox News: "Milnes retired in 2008." But, "The state was concerned at the amount of his retirement package so it subpoenaed records, hired experts and examined the compensation practices of other companies. Officials eventually determined that Milnes had been paid substantially more than he should have been, given the size of the company" (6/2).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.