State files charges against area insurance producers

The requests, filed May 23 by the department’s Consumer Affairs Division, allege that the insurance producers fraudulently enrolled more than 700 employees in a small-business group plan through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co., according to a division news release.

Statements of charges have been served to insurance producers Kevin Louderback, Shelia Atchley, Stephen Atchley, all from Springfield; and Justin Barnes, of Battlefield. Charges also were served to insurance agency Premier Financial Services and to nonprofit Citizens for AIDS Assistance and Prevention.

The state alleges the Springfield insurance producers acted as representatives of Premier Financial and CAAP to enroll the employees. They also allegedly misrepresented an agreement for insurance as part of employment with CAAP, submitted inaccurate information of applications for policies to Medicaid, failed to forward the correct premium payments to UnitedHealthcare and provided incentives to enrollees not expressed in the contracts, according to the release.

Each producer has 15 days to request a hearing to respond to the statement of charges. If a producer does not request a hearing, Doug Ommen, director of the Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration, will order the producer to stop all unlawful business practices, impose penalties and seek other relief.