Health Insurers: Worse than You Thought ?

Convinced your health insurer is ripping you off? You might be right.

A new report says one in five insurance claims are mishandled, frustrating patients and wasting $15.5 billion a year in administrative costs.

The National Health Insurer Report Card, issued by the American Medical Association, found that when it comes to claims processing and payment errors, some insurers are worse than others.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield came in at the bottom of the list. It mishandled a whopping 26 percent of its claims.

Coventry Health Care topped the list with an 88.4 percent accuracy rating.

The report also evaluated Aetna, CIGNA, Health Care Service Corp., Humana, and UnitedHealthGroup.

All of the insurers except Cigna are taking longer to respond to claims, with responses coming between 5 and 13 days. The percentage of claims denied ranged from 0.7 percent to 4.5 percent.