By: Russ PtacekKANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 41 Action News Investigation into nursing home patients battling their insurance companies has uncovered dozens of claims against Bankers Life and Casualty in Kansas and Missouri.
The Kansas insurance commissioner and a state representative are among those fighting on behalf of their own elderly relatives, as is a painter from Kansas City, Kansas named Greg Mills.
In a Neosho, Missouri nursing home, Mills’ mother, 93-year-old Miriam Mills suffers memory lapses and often doesn't even recognize her own son.
“Is dad OK?” she asked her son during a recent visit.
“Mom, dad’s been dead about five years,” Greg Mills responded.
“Oh, I'm sorry I didn't remember,” the woman sighed. “Oh my.”
Kansas Insurance Commission records from 2010 show 24 complaints against Bankers Life and Casualty Company.
The Bankers Life filings accounted for more than half of all long-term care complaints filed in Kansas.
Missouri’s registry shows, out of a hundred long term insurance companies, Bankers Life received 49 complaints, accounting for nearly a quarter of all complaints from 2008 through 2010.
Kansas residents with insurance complaints, visit:
http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/complaint.htm
Missouri residents with insurance complaints, visit:
https://insurance.mo.gov/consumers/complaints/consumerComplaint.php
Greg Mills has created the website http://www.Bankers-Life.info to expose his mother's insurance battle.
“I'm pretty angry,” Mills said from his Kansas City, Kansas home reviewing the new website.
“The slick and smoothly scripted promises versus the harsh reality of doing business with Bankers Life and Casualty Long Term Health Care Insurance are two radically different things,” Mills’ site says in the lead sentence on Bankers-Life.info .
“Despite numerous faxes, telephone calls, letters, a flood of paid nursing home statements, care plans forms and even a formal complaint filed with the Missouri Insurance Commissioner, no benefits have been paid,” Mills states on the web address he purchased bearing the Bankers Life name.
“Bankers will love this,” Mills laughed as he clicked between links on his site. “They are going to squirm.”
The site details months of phone calls, faxes, registered letters, documentation to prove her claim and his mother's health care costs..
“We've laid out $165,000 out of the family funds,” Mill said. “Bankers has paid not one cent.”
“You can't imagine how frustrating it was,” said Kathy Wolf Moore about her efforts to help her 82-year-old mother when she needed long term care. “I tried repeatedly to call Bankers Life and could not reach them. I probably made 15 to 20 calls."
What Bankers Life didn't know is that the daughter works in the Kansas capital as the elected 36th district state representative.
“Not until finally did I tell them I was going to call the insurance commission and the news media and that's when I finally got a call back,” Moore said.
Rep. Wolfe Moore found a sympathetic ear in the niece of a man who had his own insurance battle.
That niece is Sandy Praeger, who also works at the state capital as the Kansas Insurance Commissioner, a title she said likely surprised Bankers Life.
“They were probably a little dismayed, but you know the name wasn't the same, Praeger said. “A little bit ironic.”
Praeger said Bankers Life ultimately began paying her uncle’s insurance claim, but the family is now considering canceling the policy and shouldering future costs independently.
In 2008, the National Association of Insurance announced a $2.3 million fine against Conseco, the parent company of Bankers Life due to a pattern of what it called "consumer harm."
“We are continuing to get complaints, so there may be additional fines going forward,” Praeger said.
“Six months and we haven't received a dime” Mills said.
Unless Bankers Life acts soon, Greg Mills fears his mother could die a bankrupt woman.
State officials recommend consumers check complaint ratios of insurance companies when considering plans.
Kansas insurance company reviews |
http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/companysearch.htm
Missouri insurance company reviews |
http://insurance.mo.gov/CompanyAgentSearch/search/search-companies.php
Bankers Life and Casualty declined our interview requests and issued the following statement:
" While privacy laws preclude us from discussing individual policyholders, Bankers Life and Casualty Company is committed to the highest standards for ethics, fairness and accountability, and strives to pay all claims in accordance with policy contracts in a timely manner. We take all complaints seriously, and work with all parties, including the Department of Insurance, to resolve issues as soon as possible. We fulfill our obligations to our policyholders based on specific policy language, state requirements and the claim information submitted as evidence of loss, such as plans of care and itemized bills. When incomplete evidence is submitted, we make every
PRINT
