Group plan rates fall by as much as 12% in Oregon

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Only a few days after slashing insurers' proposed individual rates, the Oregon Insurance Division has reduced premiums again, this time for group plans.

The insurance department cut Providence Health Plan's proposed group premium rate by almost 12 percent, from $315 a month to $278 for a 40-year-old single, nonsmoker. Oregon officials reduced Trillium Community Health Plan's request by almost 5 percent, reported the Portland Business Journal.

Meanwhile, the following insurers saw their proposed premiums drop by 2 percent or less or not at all--Health Net, Atrio Health Plans, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest, Moda Health Plan, Oregon's Health CO-OP, PacificSource Health Plans and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon.

These cuts aren't as steep as the ones the Oregon insurance department made in the individual market, where it cut some proposed rates by as much as 35 percent, as FierceHealthPayer previously reported, primarily because of the differences between the two markets.

"There are fewer uncertainties and fewer changes in the small group market, so you see us doing far less adjusting to insurance company rates," Cheryl Martinis, public information officer for the Department of Consumer and Business Services, told the Portland Business Journal.

To learn more:
- here's the Portland Business Journal article

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