Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Misbehavin' Agents and Enrollers

Sigh:

"Agents may have enrolled some consumers in health coverage through HealthCare.gov for 2016 or 2017 without the consumers' permission"

That, according to the folks at CMS.

Now, how exactly does this happen? I mean, eventually someone has to pay a premium, no?

Well, no, not precisely:

"Income information on the [victims'] applications was misstated in ways that maximized premium tax credit subsidy amounts and eliminated any need for monthly out-of-pocket premium payments."

So Uncle Sugar was just sending checks to Anthem, or Kaiser, or whomever. And they only found out, apparently, when folks started getting notices from CMS and the IRS about coverage info.

So, no harm, no foul, you say?

Au contraire:

For one thing, that's our money going to the insurers. And for another:

"[C]onsumers who reported being affected by the enrollments did not have to pay any premiums out of pocket while the coverage was in effect, [but] they may now face tax bills and tax filing problems because of the unauthorized enrollments."

So here's a question: agents are licensed by the states, but this would seem to be a Federal issue (US tax dollars). So how will the offending agents perps be held to account?

Or even will they?

Be interesting to know, no?

[Hat Tip: Co-blogger Bob V]
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