California Watch

Attorney General Jerry Brown made extraordinary disclosures yesterday about an investigation and a set of subpoenas served to Anthem Blue Cross and six of the state’s other largest insurance companies.

At first glance, it appears that Brown is joining ranks of pitchfork-wielding politicians deriding Anthem one minute and winking at the camera the next. But Brown has been on the case since September, when he announced that he would investigate the state’s leading health insurers.

The move came as a reaction to a slightly confused announcement by the California Nurses Association, which I summed up a few weeks ago.

While Brown cannot be accused of bandwagon behavior, he is taking a step that I’d call unusual, based on five years of experience covering law enforcement primarily, and two more years of running into investigators on the health beat.

He’s telling us exactly what he’s seeking in an ongoing investigation. It's information that law enforcers tend to jealously protect, lest they tip their hand too far and spoil a solid case.

Alas, here’s what his office is exploring, per a press release:

• Member and medical provider complaints against the health plans describing payment delays, reduced payments and denials of payment claims, and the health plans responses to those complaints.
• How health plans determine doctor and hospital rankings and whether those rankings mislead customers on quality.
• Whether the health plans intend to raise premiums, and, if so, whether the plans disclosed the amount and frequency of the premium increases at the time of enrollment.
• Whether the health plans offer alternative policies to members when they increase premiums and whether the plans may deny enrollment in the alternative policies based on pre-existing conditions.

And the extraordinary transparency doesn’t end there.

Brown also listed the precise sections of the state’s Business and Professions Code that he seeks to uphold in potentially prosecuting the case. It’s information that law enforcement tends to guard carefully, lest the parties anticipating enforcement use the information to head off consequences.

Whether the unusual level of disclosure will help or hinder the probes remains to be seen. One thing, though, is for sure. If the attorney general's office asserts again that its policy is not to comment on an ongoing investigation, my response may well be: "Au contraire."