North Carolina Insurance Department Helps Consumers Recover $9 Million

Consumers in North Carolina were able to recover more than $9 million from insurance companies in 2009 with the assistance of the state insurance department.

Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said the recovery came from his department’s handling of more than 8,500 written complaints about insurance last year.

Goodwin released a summary of the activities of his regulatory agency’s various divisions in 2009. Among the other results:

• The Healthcare Review Division returned $175,540.32 to consumers who received an external review because of a health insurance claim denial.
• The Market Regulation Division conducts both market conduct examinations on foreign and domestic licensed insurance companies, premium finance companies, HMOs and PPOs to ensure compliance with state laws and regulations. Through these exams, the division ordered $981,300.81 returned to policyholders.
• The Criminal Investigations Division closed more than 413 cases with more than $10.5 million in restitution and recoveries, 89 criminal convictions and 175 arrests.
• The SHIIP (Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program) Division assisted more than 76,000 consumers with general Medicare questions and helped enroll more than 2,600 Medicare recipients in the low-income subsidy program that provides savings for prescription drug costs.