Friday, March 19, 2010
In an industry where rescission—scheming to cancel the coverage of the seriously ill—is commonplace, Fortis/Assurant Health managed to do something other insurance companies hadn’t: specifically target people with HIV. Following a South Carolina lawsuit that Fortis/Assurant lost, court documents revealed the company had a policy of finding excuses to dump policyholders diagnosed with HIV.
Company employees used a computer program and algorithm to locate every customer diagnosed with HIV so they could be subject to a fraud investigation. Many policyholders lost their coverage based on “erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all,” according to a story by Reuters.
Furthermore, the state Supreme Court, while upholding a lower court victory for an HIV customer, noted that Fortis/Assurant destroyed records to hide its misconduct.
The lawsuit brought by Jerome Mitchell initially resulted in a $15 million judgment against the insurer. The state Supreme Court knocked that down to $10 million.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage (by Murray Waas, Reuters)
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