THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

From the Columbia Journalism Review, an interview with veteran health insurance PR man Wendell Potter. What he has to say about how the industry operates is a must read foe every one who has ever dreamed of fighting crime and starting universal health care. One of the interesting point he touches on is how the journalists he dealt with could be played like a fiddle.

WP: Yes. For one thing, the media has lost interest in writing stories similar to the managed care horror stories they wrote in the 1990s, when insurers and employers were forcing people into HMOs. There is less coverage of the consequences to people resulting from insurance company practices. A lot of critical reporting is just not being done. Most reporters willingly accept a prepared statement that company executives and lawyers have written, and they feel their obligation is over. The calls we got were few and far between after the media lost interest in managed care.

TL: What insurance stories did reporters write most often?

WP: They wrote brief stories for investors, but wouldn’t go into the details of the important facts and numbers—such as a company’s medical loss ratio, which tells the percentage of premium dollars that the insurers pay out in claims. This is a closely watched measure by investors and Wall Street analysts, because it tells them how well a for-profit company is meeting investors’ earnings expectations.

TL: Did reporters ever ask about this?

WP: I can’t recall a reporter ever probing how insurers manage to meet Wall Street’s expectations through medical management and claims practices, which are key ways to manipulate the medical loss ratio and dump unprofitable accounts. Not once was I asked by a reporter what happens to people who work for small and mid-sized companies that get “purged” by insurers because their employees’ claims were causing the insurer’s medical loss ratio to move in the wrong direction from an investor’s point of view. No one ever asked me about the human consequences of satisfying Wall Street. Most reporters are happy to do a superficial job.

And from there you can read how the companies screw you and set you up to pay the costs they should be paying, but won't because it hurts their profit reports.

h/t to Walled In Pond for the link to this.