STATE OF MAINE
DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL AND FINANCIAL REGULATION
BUREAU OF INSURANCE

BCBSME’s Response to Attorney General’s Motion for Further Delay

BlueCross Blue Shield of Maine opposes the Attorney General’s motion, for the following reasons.

1. The Superintendent has already held public hearings in Presque Isle, Bangor, Gardiner, Lewiston and Portland in January; in Bangor again in February; and again in Gardiner last Saturday, April 8, 2000. These hearings followed considerable publicity concerning the Anthem/BCBSME application, including the unprecedented dissemination of filings in this matter on the Bureau’s web page. The Bureau has also received many written comments to date. In addition, at the plenary hearings on April 3-7, 2000, five highly active intervenors, including the Attorney General, had the opportunity to present evidence, and used this opportunity. Three of these intervenors retained financial experts to advise them in this matter and presented their work product as live testimony, exhibits, or both. In short, there has been more than sufficient opportunity for the presentation of evidence.
2. There is little reason to believe that further delay will assist the Superintendent in applying the relevant statutory criteria that he is required to apply to the pending applications. The Attorney General’s motion does not propose to present additional evidence. Nor have any of the other parties. At the close of the hearings on Friday, April 7, the private intervenors and Attorney General stated that they had no additional evidence to present. At the public comment hearings on Saturday, April 8^th, from 11:45 AM to 5 PM only two witnesses appeared, and their testimony lasted approximately 15 minutes.
3. The Superintendent’s order yesterday, extending the time for closing argument, effectively allowed the parties to double the length of their closing arguments by permitting the submission of the argument in a format of 15 pages single spaced. This provides the parties with sufficient opportunity to make their arguments.
4. Delay to permit an otherwise unidentified group of legislators and their supporters to "consider whether to explore any other feasible alternative legal alternative to preserving Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine as we know it" (Attorney General letter of April 10, 2000, p. 2) is not consistent with prevailing canons of administrative law and process. By enacting Chapter 344 of the Public Laws of 1997, the full Legislature, exercising its constitutional power to enact laws for the people of the State of Maine, determined that BCBSME could convert to stock form, and prescribed a procedure for doing so. This is the law that the Legislature directed the Superintendent to apply in reaching his decision in this matter, and the law on which the Applicants relied in presenting this matter to the Superintendent.
5. Further delay may disserve the interests of the subscribers of BCBSME. The documents provided by BCBSME in discovery since November 1999, the prefiled testimony filed on March 28, 2000, and the testimony at last week’s hearing cogently established the business risks that BCBSME and its subscribers face in the present circumstances. In view of the exhaustive administrative process that has already occurred, further delays are not only unwarranted but against the public’s larger interest.

Date: April 12, 2000