Florida orders company to stop selling unauthorized health insurance

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Aug 5 2010

The Association for Independent Managers may have already sold 1,800 unauthorized policies in Florida that "could leave Floridians who buy the coverage without insurance when they need medical care," The Miami Herald reports. "The Department of Financial Services has received complaints from about 100 consumers involving 49 agents selling health benefits provided by AIM" (Shah, 8/3).

The Associated Press/USA Today: "Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said the insurance department is working with regulators to hold agents who sold the policies accountable. … Regulators said the company has marketed unauthorized policies under several names, including AIM Health Plans, AIM Health Solutions, AIM Guaranteed Health Insurance, CEO Club Benefits, Chief Executive Officers Club and CEO Health Select" (8/3).

Sun-Sentinel: The company is based in Valhalla, N.Y., and "has sold the policies in numerous states under at least 19 company names, said officials of the Office of Insurance Regulation." The insurance plans sold "offer little or no coverage, and the companies are not licensed to sell health insurance in the state, officials said" (LaMendola, 8/3).

Meanwhile, a national survey of employer-sponsored health plans "conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau under the sponsorship of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality" found that Floridians pay, on average, a higher percentage of the premiums than other Americans, the Orlando Sentinel reports. "For those who sign up for family coverage, Floridians pay an average of $4,275 a year — or 33.1 percent of the premium — for their family policies, compared to the national average of $3,474 or 26.7 percent" (Shrieves, 8/3).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.