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Article: AWP prompts mixed response.(Insurance)
- Article from:
- Arkansas Business
- Article date:
- October 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Journal Publishing, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BEFORE ARKANSAS' "ANY willing provider" law went into effect in 2005, Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield warned that health care costs would rise 10 to 12 percent.
ABCBS spokeswoman Max Heuer said last week that costs have, indeed, risen since it implemented AWP, officially known as the Patient Protection Act of 1995, two years ago today.
"We've seen 2 percent from the first full year of AWP, and we expect 5 to 6 percent for additional costs over the next two years," Heuer said. Heuer said those increases are on top of the premium increases that would have occurred without AWP.
Others in the health insurance industry, however, said they haven't ...