Health Insurance fraud on the rise.

For those of you buying individual, family or small company health insurance plans should read this.
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Matthew M. Johnson, Medill News Service
Last Update: 6:27 PM ET March 3, 2004


"WASHINGTON -- Fraudulent insurance companies increasingly are victimizing small employers and individual policyholders who search for affordable health-care rates.


The General Accounting Office Wednesday identified 144 entities that preyed on unsuspecting insurance buyers even though they were not unauthorized by state insurance departments to sell health-benefits coverage from 2000 through 2002.

According to the Labor Department, the companies sold policies to more than 15,000 employers, covering more than 200,000 policyholders and leaving more than $252 million in unpaid medical claims over the three-year period.

"The proliferation of the Internet, the increasing number of the uninsured and the ever-increasing costs of health care make the perfect breeding ground for these scams to be born and grow," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "We must focus on awareness, education and aggressive oversight to prevent bogus plans from taking people's hard-earned money and leaving behind mountains of debt."

There are now approximately 43 million uninsured Americans, and the number of people covered by government health-insurance programs is expected to rise. Double-digit increases in health-care insurance rates get some of the blame."