Delgadillo targets Blue Shield

In his third major civil action filed against an insurance company, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on Wednesday accused Blue Shield of California of improperly canceling policies of more than 850 people who faced major expenses for medical costs. Daily News.

"Blue Shield's practices are shameful," Delgadillo said at a City Hall news conference where he was joined by a Chino couple whose policy was canceled, attorneys and consumer advocates.

"They knowingly issued policies that they later rescinded once people got sick."

Delgadillo alleged that the firm had a secret unit that reviewed claims and sought to cancel those in which there would be ongoing or exceptionally high medical expenses.

Blue Shield spokesman Tom Epstein said the Delgadillo action was without merit.
"The issues raised in the complaint are thoroughly regulated by two state agencies that have aggressively defended the interests of consumers. In filing this complaint, the City Attorney has seized on a hot topic in an attempt to advance his political future," Epstein said."

The City Attorney asserts that we have committed unfair practices regarding the payment of claims for 400,000 individual policyholders without a shred of evidence that our actions were improper. He fails to mention that since 2002, we have paid nearly $4 billion in claims for those policyholders. He claims that we used intentionally misleading applications, but our applications were reviewed and approved by two state regulators."

Epstein also said Delgadillo never spoke to the company before filing his action.