- Massachusetts AG Maura Healey sued healthcare insurance company HealthMarkets, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively “HealthMarkets”) over allegations that HealthMarkets misled consumers into purchasing supplemental health insurance products in violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act and a 2009 consent judgment enjoining the parent company and two other subsidiaries from similar conduct.
- The complaint alleges that HealthMarkets deceived consumers seeking traditional health insurance into instead buying unnecessary supplemental health insurance. In addition, the complaint alleges that HealthMarkets’s advertising was misleading because, among other reasons, it claimed that its sales agents were objective, that their services were free, and that they represented all insurance carriers, but in reality they were incentivized with higher commission rates to sell HealthMarkets’s supplemental insurance, consumers were sometimes charged fees for services, and they did not represent all carriers.
- The complaint seeks forfeiture or suspension of HealthMarkets’s rights to do business in Massachusetts, declaratory and injunctive relief, restitution, civil money penalties, and attorneys’ fees and costs.