The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "policyholders" ...
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"Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage"
In this four-month investigation, reporter Murray Waas reveals that the prominent insurance company WellPoint was targeting "policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for the wrongful and sometimes illegal termination of their health insurance." Waas interviews several women whose insurance policies were terminated based on "flimsy or questionable evidence." Similarly, the insurance company Fortis was found to be targeting recently diagnosed HIV patients.
Tags: cancer; HIV; breast cancer; Fortis; WellPoint; insurance; United Health Care; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Obama
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SEUS Liquidation
"These stories detailed the events leading up to the court-ordered, Oct. 27 liquidation of Atlanta-based Southeastern U.S. Insurance Co. (SEUS) and the impact on its policyholders."
Tags: SEUS; liquidation; Atlanta; southeastern; insurance; workcompcentral; clark fain; SOWEGA; Georgia;
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Golden Opportunities
The series "examined how businesses and investors are reaping enormous profits by exploiting the soaring number of older Americans."
Tags: elderly; policyholders; grievances; lawsuits; nursing homes; telemarketing fraud; financial advisors
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Home Insurers Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits
In this series, the reporters "documented a pattern of deception and abusive practices by the $6.1 trillion insurance industry. The reporters unearthed confidential company documents that showed, along with on-the-record interviews with former agents and regulators, how the entire property insurance industry had changed the way it handles customers, starting in the 1990s."
Tags: insurance; underpaying policyholders; claims; civil lawsuits
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The Insurance Hoax
The authors explored how the property insurance industry has changed over the last couple of decades and adopted a policy of consistently underpaying policyholders. The authors used internal documents from major insurance companies as well as first person sources to show how insurance agencies are handling claims in ways that pressure policyholders to accept low payments.
Tags: insurance; business; wild fires; corporate greed; property insurance; insurance agency; fraud
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Mutual Insurer Found Way to "Demutualize" That's Fast and Cheap
Roger K. Brooks, the Chief Executive of American Mutual Life Insurance, Co., found a way to "demutualize." Unfortunately, he may have misled his policyholders in doing so. the company is 1995 asked its policyholders to vote to convert the operation into a "mutual holding company." But policyholders were not told that they would get neither stock nor cash in return, and now some believe they have been cheated.
Tags: Mutual funds
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Quackenbush Rejected Steep Fines for Insurers. Department Staff called for penalties for mishandling of Northridge quake claims. But aide says smaller sanctions, with donations to special foundation, were 'significant.'
Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush rejected recommendations from his own legal team that some of the biggest insurance companies in the state be fine hundreds of millions of dollars for mishandling claims in the aftermath of the devastating Northridge earthquake.
Tags: Insurance Commissioner; Northridge earthquake; policyholders; earthquake victims; fines; donations
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Snake Killer
The Phoenix New Times examines State Farm Insurance and finds that "the country's largest insurance company employs nationwide corporate policies aimed at lowballing its own policyholders and bullying them in court should they dare to challenge the firm. ... Yet, it has continued its questionable methods."
Tags: insurance; court; State Farm legal tactics
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Uncovered Losses: Life Insurers' Race Bias In Decades Past Affects Policyholders Even Now; MetLife, for One, Remedied Some but Not All Effects Of Inequality to Blacks; A Curious List of Risky Jobs
The Wall Street Journal reveals that MetLife Insurance Company's past discriminatory policies have not been entirely remedied. Before 1959, MetLife gave preferential treatment to whites; whites received better policies than blacks. (Salesmen, in fact, were not allowed the offer black customers the best policies MetLife had to offer.) MetLife claims to have discontinued its discrimination, however, many of the companies' older, black clients still have inferior policies. For example, when the company converted into a publicly held institution in 2000, it had to give out stock to its policyholders. Many of the companies older, black customers received less stock than white customers who had purchased similar coverage for the same amount at the same time. The Wall Street Journal reveals that MetLife is being investigated by agencies from all 50 states, focusing on the current effects of its past practices.
Tags: MetLife; racisim; discrimination; insurance; bias; black; African-American; life-insurance; policy; investigation
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Unsettling Claims
KTVT-TV reports that "companies that claim to be 'a good neighbor' and to keep consumers in 'good hands' ... may only be interested in the bottom line. .. three-part investigation of the auto insurance industry .. uncovers some seriously questionable practices in Texas and around the country. The first part reveals how through the alleged abuse of Texas' titling system, cars that have been declared 'totaled-out' frequently end-up back on the road... part-two... highlight(s) the controversy surrounding after-market or imitation auto parts.... Part-three educates consumers to the concept of 'diminished value,' and how insurance companies are allegedly shortchanging their own policy-holders after a car accident...."