Bend residents buying their own health insurance next year could have four additional carriers to choose from — that is, if state regulators let them bump up their prices.

Providence Health Plan, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon and BridgeSpan Health Co. have offered to sell 2017 individual market policies in every county in Oregon — including Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson — on the condition that the state Department of Consumer and Business Services raise their monthly premiums from those the agency approved during the industry’s rate review process, which concluded at the end of June. Atrio Health Plans is also considering selling the policies in Deschutes County, so long as the agency lets it increase its approved rates.

The announcements come amid a statewide wrangling over how to remedy the issue of carriers pulling their individual policy sales from wide regions of the state. Carriers have lost millions of dollars since 2014, primarily on the costly individual market, which under the Affordable Care Act can no longer refuse enrollees due to pre-existing health conditions.

Unless more carriers enter the local market, Deschutes County is poised to have the fewest number of individual market carriers — Health Net Health Plan of Oregon and PacificSource Health Plans — of any county in the state. Eleven counties, including Crook and Jefferson, are slated to have three carriers selling individual policies next year.

While news that Oregonians could have more insurance choices sounds positive, it could result in consumers being overcharged for coverage, said Jesse Ellis O’Brien, policy director with the consumer advocacy group Oregon State Public Interest Research Group.

“It seems like if this situation is mishandled, it could set a precedent that threatening to leave part of the state could get an insurance company out of an unfavorable rate decision,” he said.

Affiliated companies Regence and BridgeSpan are asking for a 3 percent statewide increase over the rates the state already approved, plus an additional 3 percent on top of that in counties including Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson.

Roughly 234,000 Oregonians have individual policies, about 5.8 percent of the state’s population. Most people with commercial insurance get coverage through employers.

DCBS in June approved an average rate increase of 17.9 percent across Regence’s individual policies and an average of 18.9 percent for BridgeSpan. The carriers then announced in early July neither would sell in Deschutes County and BridgeSpan also wouldn’t sell in Crook and Jefferson counties.

Providence is asking the state to adjust its 2017 rates to those the company had originally requested: an average increase of 29.6 percent. The state approved an average increase of 24.1 percent. Providence is currently set to sell individual policies in 19 of the state’s 36 counties.

“Year over year carrier losses in the individual market are not sustainable, and PHP — Providence Health Plan — has concerns about the reasoning underlying the division’s modification,” Drew Tarab, Providence’s associate vice president of informatics, told regulators at a hearing Monday morning.

O’Brien said he’s particularly concerned about Providence’s proposal, as one of the reasons regulators originally pared back its prices was due to what they deemed to be a higher than necessary profit provision.

“I feel like if they don’t continue to include those other factors, then it really does potentially set a problematic precedent and also potentially overcharges consumers for coverage,” he said.

DCBS already approved rates for Atrio policies in Klamath County, whose rates must be the same as Deschutes County. The company is asking the state to increase its rates in Klamath County and also apply those to Deschutes County.

Atrio CEO Ruth Bauman told regulators Monday the company is talking with independent providers in Bend about joining Atrio’s network and is working to improve its contract with St. Charles Health System.

“We have been asked by area providers to expand coverage to that area so they can offer choice to their patients and have a sustainable marketplace,” she said. “We would hope that the rates the division would set for that area would be sustainable so that we can continue doing business there for some time.”

An Oregon Health Authority report released last month showed commercial health insurance companies paid above the statewide median for 43 common inpatient and outpatient procedures done at St. Charles Bend in 2014. The hospital’s high prices, driven perhaps by a lack of regional competition, might have played a role in the carriers’ departures.

O’Brien said he thinks the next steps will be to address the health care costs that are driving insurance carriers’ decisions.

“Some of the areas carriers were looking to pull out of do have some unusually high costs,” he told regulators at the hearing Monday.

DCBS officials will release a decision on the proposals later this week.

— Reporter: 541-383-0304,

tbannow@bendbulletin.com