
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 3, 1995                   TAG: 9506060055
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TRIGON PAYS $23 MILLION IN REFUNDS

Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield said Friday that it spent nearly $23 million to satisfy a state-mandated refund to policyholders who were not informed of discounts the insurance company negotiated on their medical bills.

The sum was part of a report by Ernst & Young, the independent accounting firm retained by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance to monitor Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield's co-insurance refund program. It concluded that Trigon's execution of the program complied with requirements of the order approved by the State Corporation Commission last September.

The report marked the completion of Trigon's co-insurance refund program, which paid 132,634 refund claims totaling $22,946,598.

The payments stemmed from a settlement between Richmond-based Trigon and state insurance regulators, who alleged that the insurance company failed to inform its customers about discounts it negotiated with medical care providers.

Regulators said policyholders paid more than their specified share of medical costs because their co-insurance share was based on the full amount of the providers' charges rather than on the discounted fees.

"We feel this has been addressed in Virginia promptly and in a way that was fair to our customers," said Trigon Chairman Norwood H. Davis Jr.

Trigon's refund program included notices published in newspapers across the state with a combined circulation of more than 4 million.

by CNB