WellPoint Allegedly Targeted Policyholders Who Were Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

A recent story has hit the news involving WellPoint, one of the largest health insurance companies in the country.  It has been alleged that this company was using a computer algorithm that automatically targets any policyholder who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  According to government regulators and investigators, WellPoint’s software prompted an immediate fraud investigation, as the insurer looked for some excuse to drop these policyholders.

For the women insured by subsidiaries of WellPoint, they thought that their insurance coverage was cancelled by mistake.  After all, they had paid their insurance premiums on time and never had trouble with their insurance before their breast cancer diagnosis.

Law enforcement agencies, state regulators and a congressional committee have discovered that tens of thousands of Americans lost their insurance coverage following a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition.  Last year, a congressional committee stated that WellPoint was allegedly one of the worst offenders of this practice, referred to as rescission.

Federal investigators claim that WellPoint purposely went after women who were diagnosed with breast cancer, by aggressively investigating their policies with the intent to cancel their coverage.  What is surprising about these allegations is that WellPoint’s CEO and president, Angela Braly, has been applauded for how the company has improved the medical care of policyholders with breast cancer.

If these allegations against WellPoint are true, they are horrible and the company should be subject to lawsuits for punitive damages.