Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (Photo from MS Insurance Dept. on Facebook)
- “The evidence is clear, these agents don’t live in Mississippi. They applied for a license here under false pretenses. To put it simply, they lied, and lying on the application, misrepresenting the facts, leads to losing your license,” Commissioner Mike Chaney said.
The Mississippi Insurance Department announced Thursday that the state agency is revoking the licenses of 59 insurance agents after they failed to appear at a hearing this week.
As previously reported by Magnolia Tribune in June, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R) sent a letter to over 70 insurance producers doing business in Mississippi alleging that their resident producer license was obtained and/or maintained through material misrepresentation or false pretenses. The producers handle Medicare advantage plans.
All 59 agents that are having their license revoked were served with a Notice of Hearing in June. Despite receiving notice, none of the agents appeared to refute the claims against them at the July 20 hearing in Jackson.
Other state Departments of Insurance are conducting similar investigations, Chaney has said.
The move comes after Chaney and Deputy Commissioner David Browning learned from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a Health Insurance provider that the agents submitted applications to sell health insurance through the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace while living in another state. MID investigators determined that most of the agents reside in Florida.
Additionally, MID noted Thursday that some agents had criminal backgrounds that they did not disclose on their applications.
“The evidence is clear, these agents don’t live in Mississippi. They applied for a license here under false pretenses. To put it simply, they lied, and lying on the application, misrepresenting the facts, leads to losing your license. It could also bring additional civil and criminal penalties,” said Commissioner Chaney.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office is now working with MID on these revocations and other pending cases.
Enforcement actions taken by MID are shown below.
Frank Corder
