Blue Cross, HealthPartners suspend some health plan sales

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Bloomington-based HealthPartners say they haven't gotten the state approval they need to sell individual coverage plans that comply to new federal healthcare regulations.

That means the two companies are temporarily suspending sales of new individual policies.

Blue Cross Blue Shield spokeswoman Pam Lux said existing policy holders or people who are renewing policies won't be affected. She said the company expects the state Department of Commerce to approve Blue Cross Blue Shields' individual policies soon.

"We'll get more clarity in the coming days here," Lux said. "New products will up for sale; then certainly we're going to want to help people look at those new options."

Lux said the situation wasn't one that was leaving a lot of people without coverage. She said the company did its best to meet new requirements but aspects of the health care law are still vague.

"Although the health reform regulations came down in a very broad way [and] how you actually put those into a product, there's still a lot of detail to be decided," she said.

Federal healthcare reform legislation went into effect yesterday Thursday that mandates increased coverage of preventative care and bans caps on lifetime benefits.