Insurance Company Routinely Cancelled Coverage of HIV Patients…and Destroyed Records

[The Straight Story]

Insurance Company Routinely Cancelled Coverage of HIV Patients…and Destroyed Records
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.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Insurance_Company_Routinely_Cancelled_Coverage_of_HIV_Patients__and_Destroyed_Records_100319

[QC]

1. Thank goodness companies like this will no longer control our access to health care!

[joycean]

2. Are we shocked? These are just the folks who got caught (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

3. Everyone involved including the software programmer needs to be prosecuted.

[area51]

4. Who would have thought this would happen?

And that since Obama saw what happened to his mother who had to fight the unregulated, for-profit, mafiosi insurance companies, maybe he might develop something called intelligence and compassion. Thank goodness no one's writing a law mandating that we buy their shitty product. Oh, wait ....