California's Brown to probe health claims

SACRAMENTO, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown said he would open an investigation to look into the state's health insurance reimbursement track records.

Brown, a Democrat, jumped into the fray on the heels of a California Nurses Association study that said the state's six largest insurance companies reject up 22 percent of the claims they receive.

From 2002 through June of this year, the six companies turned down 45.7 million claims, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

In response to the investigation, Nicole Kasbian Evans, spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Plans, said the report was a missed diagnosis.

"We believe that the attorney general's office will learn that the California Nurses Association's mischaracterization of health plan claims data does not accurately reflect denials of care for consumers or widespread denials of insurance coverage," she said.

Brown said, "these high denial rates suggest a system that is dysfunctional, and the public is entitled to know whether wrongful business practices are involved."