Colorado insurance regulators fine United Healthcare $457,000

[Joanne98]

Source: Bizjournals

The Colorado Division of Insurance said Monday it has fined United Healthcare of Colorado a total of $457,000 for various alleged violations.

The final market conduct orders reflected fines of $211,000 for United Healthcare of Colorado and $246,000 for United Healthcare Insurance Co.

“It is our job to protect consumers by making sure they receive all of the benefits for which they have paid,” Insurance Commissioner Marcy Morrison said in a statement. “Market conduct examinations provide a ‘check and balance’ to be sure companies are fulfilling their responsibilities.”

The market conduct examinations, which covered calendar year 2007, found violations on a number of issues for both companies, officials said. These included: providing incomplete information in certificates of creditable coverage, failing to pay claims timely and accurately, and failing to comply with the requirement for physician review in some cases involving utilization review.


Read more: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/10/05/daily15.html

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What's wrong with the other 49 Insurance Commissioners?

[KansDem]

1. "it has fined United Healthcare of Colorado a total of $457,000 for various alleged violations"

Can you get fined for an "alleged violation?"

Or is this "bizjournal" spin?

[SoCalNative]

5. Yes...likely they

agreed to pay fines but declined to admit any wrongdoing.

[ellenfl]

2. a drop in the bucket compared to profits but

it's nice to see someone holding them to SOME accountability . . . meager tho' it is.

ellen fl

[Newsjock]

3. The cost of doing business for them

It won't even be noticeable on the balance sheet.

Increase the penalties 100-fold, say, and make them pay.

[BanzaiBonnie]

4. Just as I started reading this a commercial came on for United Healthcare

Talking up its supplemental insurance to help make sure everything is paid for when you have medical expenses! What a joke.

[Downwinder]

6. Any of this go to consumers?

[No Elephants]

7. Petty cash for United Health.

[Traveling_Home]

8. I love this......

I love being able to go to a Govt agency to get help when the private sector screws me.

[Zoeisright]

9. That's what the CEO of that evil organization makes PER DAY.

Way to hit them where it hurts.

:sarcasm:

[TheCML]

10. Who cares about fines?

500,000 is nothing to them, and where is that money going? Probably not to the people they fucked over. Stop fining and start enforcing and making them pay!

[SandWalker1984]

11. I found this paragraph of the article most enlightening....

"The exams showed that some individual consumers — whose coverage under a small group plan had terminated — were not offered coverage under the state mandated basic and standard plans. United Healthcare Insurance Co. also had several violations pertaining to information provided in its policy forms."


Some individuals were not offered coverage under the STATE MANDATED basic & standard plans.

So there were state mandates, and the insurance companies blew them off?

I wonder if those individuals were ones with established medical conditions?

My big concern here is
if the insurance companies are willing to ignore mandates because the fines for ignoring mandates are less expensive to them than providing the insurance coverage/medical care to these people, then what is to stop them from doing this under a national mandate???

[Blue State Blues]

14. Yes, they break the laws and disregard the laws we have now

why would we think they will obey new laws and new regulations?

[ooglymoogly]

12. A slap on the hand may be quite continental....

Wow getting tough on the insurance industry....$557,000 that must be a whole 10 milliseconds or less of profit for the insurance corp.

[taught_me_patience]

13. Petty cash to them

I'd like to see states enforce a policy that if you deny coverage to somebody who is sick... that is murder. You have 30 days to cease business in the state and GTFO.

[dflprincess]

15. As with Walmart and the fines they pay for violating labor laws,

this sort of thing is just part of the cost of "doing business" for UHG.