Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, is asking executives at Genworth Financial Inc., The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and MetLife Inc. to produce details on executives' pay.
The requests, which he made with Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, are part of the committee's examination of the health insurance industry and its business practices and executive compensation, the committee noted in an announcement on its website today.
On Monday, Mr. Waxman, D-Calif., sent letters to 52 carriers, including American International Group Inc. of New York, which had received federal aid, and The Principal Financial Group of Des Moines, Iowa, which did not.
Specifically, he asked for the compensation details of each employee or officer who was paid more than $500,000 annually for each year between 2003 and 2008. Mr. Waxman requested details on salaries and bonuses, as well as stock awards and perks, according to a letter on the committee's website.
He also called for a table listing all conferences and retreats held outside of company facilities from Jan. 1, 2007, to the present that were covered by the company, as well as the purpose of the events and documented proof of the location, number of participants and costs incurred.
Mr. Waxman also asked for information on premium revenue, claims payments, sales expenses and profits for all the companies' health insurance products from 2005 to 2008, along with other data for all units and affiliates controlled by the companies.
Carriers have until Sept. 4 to turn in the information on the executives' pay data and company retreats. They have until Sept. 14 to submit documents prepared by the board or by a compensation committee to create executive payment plans for each year from 2003 to 2008, along with the table listing premium revenue and claims payments from 2005 to 2008.
Aside from the aforementioned large carriers, Mr. Waxman and Mr. Stupak also demanded information from a variety of state “Blue” health programs, including Blue Shield of California and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
“We received the request, and we're reviewing it now,” Aron Ezra, spokesman for San Francisco-based Blue Shield of California, wrote in an e-mail.
“We are currently reviewing the request,” Sonja Sorrel, The Principal's spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail. “Since The Principal is a public company, some of the information requested is already publicly available.”
Calls to AIG, Guardian and MetLife, all of New York, and calls to Genworth of Richmond, Va., and Boston-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, weren't immediately returned.
See the list of carriers
here.
See copies of letters to executives
here.
