Insurance Fraud Costs Us All!

Insurance fraud costs each Florida family an additional $1,500 per year* in increased premiums. In fact, it can inflate your premiums by as much as 30 percent, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. This includes the money you pay for life, auto, health, homeowners and other types of insurance. You can protect your personal and family pocketbook by learning about the many different types of insurance scams. Some common examples include:

Fictional visit — A health care provider bills the federal Medicare program for unnecessary, unauthorized or fictional visits to a patient’s home.

Rogue agent commits “stacking” — An insurance agent commits “stacking” by deliberately selling unnecessary health insurance to a consumer that duplicates existing coverage.

Applicant fraud — An applicant deliberately withholds information about a pre-existing condition in hopes of obtaining health insurance.

Unauthorized referral — A laboratory bills a health insurer for a patient’s tests using information stolen from a referring physician. Actually, the physician has never seen the patient.

Deceptive billing — A senior sells insurance information to a health care provider, who bills Medicare for services never rendered. In some cases, such providers bill for as many as 800 phony services for one senior in a three-month period.

Many other types of insurance fraud exist. If you suspect such a crime has occurred, call the Florida Department of Financial Services Fraud Hotline toll-free at 1-800-378-0445.

*Source: The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud