Category Archives: Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

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

Doctors Groups Sue Aetna and Cigna, Alleging Rigged Database Underpaid Physicians

Written On February 12, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The Dallas Morning News reports that the American Medical Association has joined doctors associations
from Texas and other states in suing health insurers Aetna Inc. and
Cigna Corp. over a database they say was rigged to underpay physicians
for more than a decade. Here are excerpts from the article:
The
lawsuits heap more criticism on Ingenix Inc. data that already [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Tort Reform

State Farm Explains Reasons for Leaving Florida

Written On February 4, 2009 By Bob Kraft

The AP (2/4, Kallestad) reports, "State Farm Florida has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the state in the last decade and risks insolvency if it continues writing property insurance here, company executives told a legislative committee Tuesday" and "Jim Thompson, president of State Farm Florida, told the House Insurance, Business & Financial Affairs [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct

UnitedHealth To Pay $400 Million To Settle Manipulation Allegations

Written On January 16, 2009 By Bob Kraft

Bloomberg News
(1/15, Goldstein, Freifeld) reported, "UnitedHealth Group Inc., the
biggest U.S. health insurer, said it will spend $400 million to settle
allegations it has manipulated payments to doctors and patients for the
last 15 years." UnitedHealth "agreed to put $350 million into a
class-action restitution fund to pay physicians and policyholders for
services provided by out-of-network providers, the company said [...]

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

Editorial: Texans Deserve To Know Hospital Mistakes

Written On January 14, 2009 By Bob Kraft

This Dallas Morning News editorial is in follow-up to the excellent series the paper has run (and that I have written about) over the past few weeks.
In 2007, state Sen. Jane
Nelson did yeoman's work in passing legislation that requires Texas
hospitals to report the types of infections they see in their daily
work.
But as [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Government, Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Medical Malpractice, Political and/or Judicial