According to the article “Colorado Fines Two Health Insurers” found on News In Brief on ama-assn.org, Colorado’s Division of Insurance has placed 2 fines against large health insurance plans back in March.  This was based on reviews of Colorado health insurance companies’ business practices.

One company was Aetna which was fined a total of $624,000 after the state’s market conduct examination over the year of 2008.  The Division of Insurance determined that Aetna had, in addition to other things, failed to pay certain claims correctly and not paid on time.  They also failed to ensure that utilization review panel members were credentialed accurately.

Aetna released a corporate statement saying that as soon as they became aware of the compliance gaps in 2008 they took immediate action to fix the issues brought about by the exam.

In a different review, the Division of Insurance found that Cigna’s HMO broke some notification rules in 2007.  Since 2008 the company stopped marketing such program.  Colorado fined Cigna $32,000 and they do not have a comment on the final ruling.

Both companies have since paid their fines. These two companies do work hard to offer quality health insurance as well as Medicare supplement insurance.