Steve Mayer

Enjoying my retirement, and pursuing my interests:

Reuters has an eye-opening investigation today showing how the health-insurance company Assurant Health (formerly called Fortis) systematically targeted sick patients for “rescission”—where insurers pick expensive customers and find technicalities to dump them.

A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy.

The great investigative journalist Murray Waas is on the case here, getting hold of “previously undisclosed records” from a case that went to the Supreme Court involving a 17-year-old who sued Assurant for dropping him. The records come out of that case:

By winning the verdict against Fortis, Mitchell helped expose wrongdoing on the part of Fortis that could have repercussions for the health insurance industry.

Waas reports that the news was found in two judge’s order denying Assurant motions.