Private Health Insurance: Employers and Individuals Are Vulnerable to Unauthorized or Bogus Entities Selling Coverage: GAO-04-312.

Health insurance premiums have increased at double-digit rates over the past few years. While searching for affordable options, some employers and individuals have purchased coverage from certain entities that are not authorized by state insurance departments to sell this coverage. Such unauthorized entities--also sometimes referred to as bogus entities or scams--may collect premiums and not pay some or all of the legitimate medical claims filed by policyholders. GAO was asked to identify the number of these entities that operated from 2000 through 2002, the number of employers and policyholders covered, the amount of unpaid claims, and the methods state and federal governments employed to identify such entities and to stop and prevent them from operating. GAO analyzed information on these entities obtained from the Department of Labor (DOL) and from a survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. GAO also interviewed officials at DOL headquarters, at three regional offices, and at state insurance departments responsible for investigating these entities in four states--Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. DOL and the states identified 144 unique entities not authorized to sell health benefits coverage from 2000 through 2002. The number of entities newly identified increased each year, almost doubling from 31 in 2000 to 60 in 2002. Many of these entities targeted employers and policyholders in multiple states, and, of the seven states with 25 or more entities, five were located in the South. DOL and the states reported that the 144 unique entities (1) sold coverage to at least 15,000 employers, including many small employers; (2) covered more than 200,000 policyholders; and (3) left at least $252 million in unpaid medical claims, only about 21 percent of which had been recovered at the time of GAO's 2003 survey. States and DOL often identified these entities based on consumer complaints. DOL often relied on states to stop these entities within their borders while DOL focused its investigations on larger entities operating in multiple states and, in three cases, obtained court orders to stop these entities nationwide. Most of the states' prevention activities were geared to increasing public awareness and notifying the agents who sold this coverage, while DOL focused its efforts on alerting employer groups and small employers. In commenting on a draft of this report, DOL, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Florida, and Texas highlighted their efforts to increase public awareness, coordinate investigations, and take enforcement actions regarding these entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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