March 31, 2009

3 Possible Ways Your Medical Insurance Company Might Be Conning You

The ever rising number of consumers signing up for health insurance plans has resulted in a rise in the number of scam medical insurance providers. These medical insurance providers often target people who have recently retired and seniors who are unable to arrange better rates with legitimate health insurers. Read on to discover 3 ways in which your health insurance company may try to scam you.

1. Failure to pay claims

Usually fraudrulent medical insurance agents try to sign up a huge number of people quickly by making them very lucrative offers. These insurance providers are themselves paying small premium amounts and settle small medical claims however, if there is a sizeable claim arises or regulators catch them, these companies simply vanish as if they had never existed.

Be wary therefore if you are getting delayed payments or if your service provider is offering lame excuses for their failure to pay out. If you have one of these illicit plans you may also find that you are liable for medical bills for your employees as well if you have taken a policy as an employer for your business.

2. Selling health plans which are not licensed

If the company from which you have purchased your medical policy does not hold a license from the State Insurance Commissioner then you could find yourself in difficulty. In these circumstances your service provider is almost certainly conning you by offering medical plans that are also not licensed.

You should also note that agents are not allowed to provide union or ERISA plans, both of which are governed by federal law. If therefore your agent tries to sell you an union or ERISA plan you ought to report this to your state insurance department.

3. Offering unusual coverage at low rates

If you are offered a high level of cover regardless of your health condition and at a lower rate than you would expect from other insurers then you need to be very careful. Do not be fooled by an apparently too attractive offer because you are more than likely to find yourself being taken for a ride. The scammers aim to collect large amounts of money as early as they can and so they will attempt to sell as many policies as they can as fast as they can before they disappear into the night.

Of course these are just a few of the many tricks that the scammers get up to but in most cases the presence of one or more of these things should make you stop and look closely at what you are purchasing.

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