Financial records show for-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi has accumulated a surplus significantly larger than what regulators require to protect consumers, according to Mississippi Today.
The company's surplus may be the largest by percentage of any Blue Cross company in the country, according to the report.
In order to guarantee an insurance company can pay out all of the claims it receives, regulators establish a certain amount of capital the payer must hold, according to the report. The size of a payer's surplus is expressed as a percentage of the baseline requirement, known as the risk-based capital ratio.
Typically, insurance companies hold at least three times as much capital as the minimum requirement, a ratio of 300 percent, according to the report.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi's ratio was 1,578 percent at the end of 2021, according to the report. UnitedHealthcare, the state's second largest insurer after BCBS, had a ratio of 1,078 percent.
The payer's surplus is significantly larger than Blue Cross companies in neighboring states, according to Mississippi Today. Louisiana's ratio was 944 percent at the end of 2021, Arkansas' was 751 percent and Georgia's was 506 percent.
A Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi representative told Mississippi Today the reserves are a critical component of the company's financial security and its ability to pay for future healthcare services.
Mississippi regulators told Mississippi Today there is no ceiling for the surplus, so no laws are being violated.