Questionable Insurance Practices – Another Form of Insurance Fraud?
Alan Shanoff of the Toronto Sun recently authored an interesting piece questioning whether insurance company practices could be viewed as insurance fraud.
When insurers catch customers defrauding the system the stories tend to make headlines. That is a good thing. Fraud should be weeded out and publicly condemned. Alan suggests that these stories, however, may not be the only form of insurance fraud. If insurers use practices that result in their customers being wrongfully deprived of their insured benefits can that constitute insurance fraud? Should the media pay equal attention to stories of insurers short changing their customers?
As previously discussed, insurance fraud from either side of the fence deserves rebuke. When claimants are unlawfully deprived of their insurance benefits they don’t have the deep-pockets that insurers have access to in order to find a legal remedy. Alan makes some interesting observations in his article and I encourage anyone interested in the insurance fraud debate to review Alan’s article.