Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994 TAG: 9403300166
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There's a whole lot of insurance fraud going on against the senior population, claims Abell, assistant finance director at the League of Older Americans Area Agency on Aging - the organization with a state contract to provide insurance counseling to people 65 and older.
The program, the Virginia Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Project, is supposed to offset slick insurance pitches designed to intimidate senior citizens into buying something they might not need and may not even understand.
Abell tells a horror tale of one woman who signed a contract to buy five policies from one company, committing herself to pay almost $20,000 a year in premiums. The company's agent had been in her house for more than four hours before she signed, Abell said.
This example might be the extreme, Abell said. But it underscores his warning: Never listen to an insurance proposal alone. Invite a relative or neighbor to hear the spiel with you.
There are plenty of legitimate supplemental and long-term care policies offered by reputable companies, Abell said. But they aren't his concern. He wants people to be aware of the "other" type of sellers and sales tactics.
"Medicare doesn't call you up at 6 o'clock and offer to review your Medicare benefits," he said, but that's a tactic used by some insurance companies to make contact with a senior citizen.
The citizen might think, "Oh, boy! Someone wants to save me money," but you can bet the agent is thinking, "Sucker."
"They called my house last week and wanted to speak to my mother," Abell said.
Also, he warned, senior citizens need to beware of free lunches. Agents sometimes invite seniors to lunch and a lecture at a popular eatery, then get them to sign cards giving their names and phone numbers. Those cards then become contacts for the agents.
In other words, there is no free lunch, even after 65.
Abell said insurance complaints are so common in the Roanoke area - because of the large population of retirement-age people - that the state hopes to hold a seminar here in May to publicize how complaints can be filed.
Last year, there were two settlement orders issued by the State Corporation Commission against two Roanoke-area insurance companies because of complaints. One company was found to have made false statements about insurance. The other was found to have made false statements and allowed an unlicensed person to solicit contracts. Both companies waived hearings and offered settlements: one paid $500; the other, $7,500.
Hundreds of similar settlements are made each year, according to the SCC.
The state is compiling a list of each company's premiums for Medigap policies and is expected to release the comparison by late spring. In the meantime, if you or a member of your family wants to know if an insurance company is licensed to sell coverage in Virginia, or if you have other questions, you can contact the Bureau of Insurance at the SCC, (800) 552-7945. You can get a packet of insurance information free.
If you'd like to volunteer to serve on Abell's insurance-counseling team, contact him at 345-0451. He will give advice on WBRA-TV's "Now & Then'' show April 21 at 8 p.m.
American Greetings plans to spend multimillions, beginning April 11, to promote CreataCard, a system that enables consumers to design, personalize and manufacture a wide assortment of greeting cards in less than 21/2 minutes. The campaign will be tied to Mother's Day and Father's Day.
Apparently, almost everyone's doing it - designing cards - because revenues from CreataCard in the first full fiscal year ended Feb. 28 are expected to approach $35 million, the company said.
If you, like me, haven't tried it, the system is in Hill's and Wal-Mart stores in Roanoke and Salem and in Hill's, Kmart and Wal-Mart in New River.
by CNB