These greedy criminals denied straightforward medical claims by veterans and contract workers for injuries in Iraq (e.g. an artificial leg). The improper denials costs injured victims many months of financial strain. They suffer ruined credit over unpaid doctor bills. Later they must go through months of costly litigation.
This is a major scandal made for televsion: AIG executives enjoy luxury vacations paid for by taxpayer bailouts. The injured lose homes to foreclosure, while AIG plays sick insurance fraud games.
*Ping* !
Take this with a grain of salt until more information comes out. Pro Publica is a notoriously liberal group which conducts investigatory “journalism” for newspapers that have had to cut back on staff.
AIG provided ABC 20/20 with a statement while the story was in production.
“We have a 45-year history of handling Defense Base Act (DBA) claims for our clients, both DBA-insured contractors and their civilian employees. The vast majority of the tens of thousands of claims that we process are paid without dispute when the proper supporting medical evidence has been received. In the event of a dispute, we follow the formal DBA resolution process, which includes a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. When we have received insufficient medical documentation to support a PTSD claim, we refer the claim to independent mental health experts experienced in evaluating such cases. Diagnosing PTSD is often a complicated process, and as with all claims, regardless of severity, we are committed to evaluating cases according to the full coverage and benefit levels specified under the DBA law and regulations. Some cases, unfortunately, take longer to investigate than others because of documentation issues, but the vast majority of them are paid once those issues are resolved.
“Employers are responsible for communicating the availability of DBA coverage to their employees, and reporting their claims. We support employers’ efforts in this regard, by, for example, providing claim forms in a variety of local languages.
“In all cases, it is our policy to respect the privacy of our customers and claimants and not discuss the specifics of individual claims. We also do not comment on pending litigation.”
/mark
Serious problem, but mostly just nice misdirection.
I fought with an insurance company for almost a year, and my credit rating took a hit. I HATE THE DAM_ HEALTH INSURANCE CORPORATIONS.
Anyone who sleeps soundly at night assured that he is covered is nothing but a FOOL. I don't care how many years you've paid you're premiums, if the pencil pushers at your insurance corp thinks they can deny your - legitimate - claims and get away with it, they will try. If they deny a hundred claims, they know that a certain percentage of folks will go ahead and pay the claim even if they were entitled to coverage, but I wasn't going to be one of those that gave in.
Both parties are in bed with these crooks. sigh
BTT