Termination of Individual Health Insurance
Channel: HouseResourceOrg
Date: 27/12/2010

Termination of Individual Health Insurance - House Oversight Committee - 2008-07-17 - Product 206459-1-DVD - House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. A hearing was held on the insurance company practice of "post-claims underwriting" (also known as "rescission"), where an individual health insurance policy is canceled and the premiums returned after a policyholder submits expensive claims, leaving the policyholder with the bills as if they were never insured. Members of the first panel consisted of a couple whose insurance policy had been canceled, and California and Connecticut state managed health care officials who have investigated rescission claims. An official for CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), which administers HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance, testified in the second panel. HIPAA guarantees that consumers may renew individual health policies as long as no fraud or misrepresentation has occurred. The official stated that CMS has never taken action against insurers for rescission because no specific cases have been referred to the center. An attorney for American's Health Insurance Plans spoke on the third panel. Filmed by C-SPAN. Non-commercial use only. For more information see http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/206459-1