Does the Insurance Industry Engage in More Insurance Fraud Than Their Customers?
Absolutely. The problem is that there is no industry to uncover these acts and no propagandists sensationalizing what is going on. But the evidence is there.
For example, Marsh & McLennan just paid over seven million dollars as partial punishment for a bid rigging scheme involving other insurance companies.
"The intricate bid rigging scheme allowed Marsh to designate which insurance company's bid would "win" a particular account. To create the appearance of a competitive bidding process, Marsh would instruct certain insurers to submit inflated, intentionally uncompetitive bids. These schemes gave commercial policyholders the impression that they were receiving the most competitive commercial premiums available, when they were actually being overcharged."
Where are the insurance industry propagandists like Barry Zalma and Dennis Jay calling for these individuals to be jailed? Where are their calls to stop cheating claims practices that result in delayed and underpaid claims everyday?
I do not mean to be unfair. Policyholder cheating and fraud is wrong and hurts everybody. It just seems the insurance companies need to get their house in order before calling their customers bigger cheats than they are.
What do you think?
I think you're absolutely correct. In fact, I followed the links to the research when you did a similar post and found that only a small percentage of fraud is associated with property claims.
Even most laws are written to address fraud against insurers, not by insurers.
However, the Mississippi laws I posted today seem to be balanced - just missing an allowable period for payment that is serving folks in La well at present. Although, I do believe we have similar period established in regulation, not law.
We need it in law and we need transparency in settlement so fraud can't be covered. That goes for individual cases as well as the one in your post.
Thanks for all you're doing to keep the conversation going.