Category Archives: Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

Texas to Require Insurers to Justify “Unreasonable” Premium Increases

Written On August 24, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Will Texas really start to crack down on insurance company abuses, or is this just more empty talk from the Texas Department of Insurance? An article in the Dallas Morning News this week quotes state officials as saying they will now question “unreasonable” rate hikes from insurance companies. This change is being forced on the [...]

Posted in Government, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Attorney General Demands Deceptive Insurance Ad Be Pulled

Written On July 13, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The consumer group Texas Watch has been working to have a deceptive television commercial pulled from the air, and has been successful. The misleading commercial was by Travelers Insurance Company. Here is a press release from Texas Watch:
The state attorney general ordered Travelers Cos. Inc. to stop running an advertisement that he called deceptive.
In a [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Vehicle Law or News

Lawsuit Says Dallas Ambulances Overcharged Federal Government by Millions of Dollars

Written On July 1, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Has the City of Dallas been over-charging for ambulance services? That’s the gist of an article in the Dallas Morning News today. And now the city is facing a lawsuit from the federal government demanding repayment for as much as $40 million in overcharges and penalties. I don’t know whether these allegations are true, but [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

Two Texas Auto Insurers Face Investigation Over Huge Number of Consumer Complaints

Written On June 17, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Finally, someone seems to have noticed the notoriously bad behavior of two of the worst auto insurance companies in Texas. The Dallas Morning News ran a lengthy story this week detailing the volume and variety of complaints the Texas Department of Insurance has received against Fred Loya and Old American County Mutual insurance companies. The [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

Obama Health Proposal Could Reduce Texas Insurance Premiums

Written On February 26, 2010 By Bob Kraft

It may come as a surprise to those not familiar with Texas politics that Texas does not review most increases in health insurance premiums. Not unless the premium increase is for more than 50% annually. Everything else is fair game. An insurance company can increase premiums 49% per year every year and that would be [...]

Posted in Government, Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

Insurance “Oversight” in Texas — FAIL

Written On January 12, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Sadly, this is what passes for insurance oversight by the Texas state government: Farmers Insurance raised their homeowners coverage rates by 10% last June without permission from the state, which under our “fair and balanced” laws they are allowed to do. At the time, the State Insurance Commissioner called the rate hike “excessive and unfairly [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Government, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Texas Homeowners’ Insurance Rates Drop to Number Two

Written On December 31, 2009 By Bob Kraft

That headline is misleading, because homeowner insurance rates for Texans have actually risen, again, as always. The tiny sliver of good news for us is that Florida homeowner rates have risen even further than Texas, so we have temporarily lost our long-held position as the state with the highest insurance rates in the nation. I [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Omnicare Will Settle Kickback Cases for $98,000,000

Written On November 4, 2009 By Bob Kraft

CBS Evening News (11/3, story 9, 1:40, Smith) reported, “As members of Congress debate healthcare reform, most would agree there needs to be a crackdown on cheating. Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian reports now on a staggering fraud settlement involving healthcare giant Omnicare.” CBS (Keteyian) added that “Omnicare agreed to pay nearly $100 million to [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Tort Reform

Medical Malpractice Insurers: Time to End Their License to Gouge

Written On October 30, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Here’s an interesting opinion about one reason medical malpractice insurance premiums are so high. This is from one of the contributors to the Huffington Post:
In 1945, Congress gave the massively powerful insurance industry an astonishing gift. It bestowed on them the freedom to do what would be illegal in every other industry (save, strangely, Major [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Medical Malpractice, Tort Reform

Tort Reform Is Not The Answer

Written On October 29, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Tort reform is not the answer — that’s the headline of an editorial in the Des Moines Register. The editorial lays out the arguments in favor of tort reform as a way to save money on health care, but comes to this conclusion:
The truth is some Americans are injured by health-care workers. They contract infections [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Medical Malpractice, Tort Reform

Righting Wrongful Denials of Insurance Coverage

Written On October 28, 2009 By Bob Kraft

This article from the Los Angeles Times provides a good, brief insight into what I think is one of the worst federal laws ever passed — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, better known as ERISA.
One purpose of the healthcare reform effort in Washington is to help more Americans obtain coverage, in part by making [...]

Posted in Government, Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

Battle Over Legal ‘Reforms’ Has Been Costly to Families

Written On October 19, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Houston Chronicle has a good editorial about recent insurance “reforms” in Texas and across the nation. The gist of the editorial is that these reforms are hurting, not helping, average consumers. Here are excerpts:
For 20-plus years, the insurance industry, aided by tobacco interests, polluters, developers and the medical industry, have been engaged in a [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Medical Malpractice, Tort Reform

Why Your Kid Might Not Get Vaccinated

Written On September 9, 2009 By Bob Kraft

CNNMoney has published a disturbing article explaining why more and more family physicians are refusing to give vaccine shots. The answer is that the health insurance companies won’t reimburse the doctors for the full cost of administering the vaccines. If a doctor is going to lose money on every vaccination, that doctor is eventually going [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

Colorado Lawmakers Question Bonuses Paid By Workers’ Compensation Insurer

Written On September 4, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports on what may be insurance company misconduct regarding denial of workers’ compensation claims in that state. Here are excerpts from the article:
A workers compensation insurer may have paid bonuses to employees for denying claims, a lawmaker said Thursday, citing documents provided by the company.
State Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, said that [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Workers' Compensation

Research Firm Cited by GOP Is Owned by Health Insurer

Written On July 22, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Here’s a perfect example of why this blog has the title and subtitle it has. We’ve come to a point where we just can’t trust either government or insurance companies to act in the best interests of the citizens of this country. Whatever your feelings about the proposed health insurance laws may be (and my [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

AMA Report Card Ranks Health Insurance Companies

Written On July 22, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The AMA has issued its 2009 Health Insurer Report Card, which measures the nation’s eight largest health insurers on claim denials, timeliness, accuracy and transparency. For more information than you could ever want on this subject, you can visit the AMA Web site. Fortunately, the Dallas Morning News has summarized the findings for us:

Doctors frustrated [...]

Posted in Health Insurance, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

State Farm’s Rate Case Mocks Texas Insurance Regulation

Written On June 21, 2009 By Bob Kraft

No additional comment is necessary about this editorial from the Dallas Morning News today:
State Farm is masterful at working the legal system. For six years, it has danced in and out of court to thwart the Texas insurance department’s order to refund millions to policyholders in alleged overcharges.
State Farm says it has done nothing [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

ERISA: License to Cheat, Lie, and Steal for the Disability Insurance Industry

Written On February 21, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The headline says it all in this Utah Bar Journal article.

Posted in Disability, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

Homeowners Pay Higher Insurance Premiums, Yet Many Policies Limited

Written On February 18, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Dallas Morning News has run an excellent series about Texas, a State of Neglect. This series has chronicled the state's failure to regulate various businesses, and the potential relationship between Lack of regulation and big political contributions from those businesses. The last of the series deals with homeowners insurance. Texans are paying more money [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information

Wisconsin Supreme Court Tosses Suit Against Medtronic

Written On February 17, 2009 By Bob Kraft

In another anti-consumer action, the drug and medical device makers have won the latest battle in the preemption war. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit against Medtronic, a manufacturer of defibrillators. The Wisconsin court followed a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, basically saying that if a manufacturer could slip a product [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Product Liability or Medical Devices