Corrected headline to $20 million, 6:45 a.m. ET, Sept. 23

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is going to pay $20 million back to about 90,000 policyholders in Colorado as part of a settlement of an investigation into rate increases on its individual health policies in the state.

Marcy Morrison

The stipulated agreement between the Colorado Division of Insurance and Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service, commonly known as Anthem, covers individual policies who were covered between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30.

Those individuals will receive a premium credit, either as a premium reduction or a disbursement check for those who are no longer covered by Anthem, according to a Colorado Division of Insurance statement.

The settlement also concludes the Division’s Market Conduct Examination and Rate Inquiry of three individual health insurance rate filings by Anthem with effective dates between January 1, 2009, and last Jan. 1 that increased the premiums paid to Anthem.

“Getting $20 million back into the pockets of Colorado consumers is a positive and beneficial outcome,” said Insurance Commissioner Marcy Morrison. “We will continue our active review of all rate filings.”

The market conduct examination of Anthem was initiated in February 2010 after a spike in consumer complaints about rate increases. Between July 2009 and November 2009, state regulators received nine complaints about Anthem’s rates.

Between December 2009 and last March, a total of 210 complaints about Anthem, mostly related to rate increases in individual health plans, were logged by state officials.