HMSA, Kaiser show income gains
HONOLULU - Hawaii's two largest health insurance providers earned operating income during the first three months of the year.
Hawaii Medical Service Association on Tuesday reported operating gain of $7.2 million for the quarter, amounting to just over 1 percent of dues collected. Its after-tax gain totaled $12.8 million, or about 2 percent of dues collected.
HMSA says it's putting the money into reserve funds that cover large unexpected health care costs or losses.
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. Hawaii Region reported an operating income $600,000 during the first quarter. That's less than 1 percent of revenue.
Kaiser Permanente says it's holding down costs and focusing on total health. It's campaigning nationally and locally to bring attention to obesity, which is a major cause of poor health and health care spending.
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Isle man charged in $35M scheme
HONOLULU - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Hawaii man in a $35 million international investment scheme.
The SEC says Nicholas Louis Geranio founded small companies, installed management, and recruited overseas "boiler rooms" that pressured investors into buying stock while pocketing more than $2 million in consulting fees from proceeds of the fraudulent stock sales.
Geranio could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
According to the complaint, representatives recruited by Geranio induced investors with aggressive techniques such as promising immediate and substantial returns and threatening legal action if an investor did not agree to purchase shares the representatives believed the investor had already agreed to purchase.
Many of the investors were elderly and living in the United Kingdom.
