State Insurance Commissioner John Morrison said Thursday his office is examining Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield's pricing of health coverage for small businesses in a "pool" subsidized by the state, to ensure it's complying with state law and rules.

Blue Cross has a state contract to offer group health insurance to the 785 small businesses under the Insure Montana program, which helps the businesses and their employees pay for the insurance.

About 5,500 people have insurance through the plan. However, they are not all paying the same rate, despite being in one "pool" of insured customers.

Blue Cross prices the insurance for each individual business, based on factors such as the employees' age, health condition and type of work.

Blue Cross says the premiums are slightly lower than if the businesses bought the group insurance on their own, independent of the pool.

Morrison said his office is looking at variations in the rates, between different businesses.

"Some groups within the pool are charged differently than other groups," he said. "We're examining those to see if they're complying with the law."

Linda McGillen, spokeswoman for Blue Cross, said the company set up the pricing and the policies as part of a bid that was accepted by Morrison's office and the Insure Montana program.

"The way we have it set up is exactly the way we proposed it in our bid, as requested by the state," she said.