Agent seeks class action law suit against Covered California.
Certified Insurance Agent John Dickey, who is already taking Covered California to small claims court, is now in conversations with a Southern California law firm to potentially file a class action lawsuit against Covered California on behalf of agents who suffered a loss of income because of the numerous problems during open enrollment for 2014. Dickey’s contention, and that of many other agents certified by Covered California to enroll individuals, families and small groups into Qualified Health Plans or Minimum Essential Coverage, is that a lack of training, software problems and general mismanagement of the CalHEERS enrollment system resulted in agents never being paid commissions or having the compensation delayed for months.
L.A. Times: Many agents still waiting to be paid for Covered California enrollments
Covered California problems are no secret
The problems Covered California experienced in 2014 regarding agent compensation is well documented and has continued into 2015. Covered California announced during a January 28th in a webinar with agents that they hoped to be paying additional compensation for Medi-Cal enrollments by agents in February 2015 for applications that were entered almost a year earlier in 2014. Many agents have never been appointed as Broker of Record with the carrier for enrollments they made which would entitle them to commissions. The Covered California small group SHOP health insurance hasn’t paid commissions for months to some agents with no particular explanation other than they are trying to fix a broken system.
Covered California: Agent commission frequently asked questions
Can a class action lawsuit help health agents?
The potential class action lawsuit would be seeking damages for monetary injuries suffered by Certified Insurance Agents because of Covered California’s negligence in establishing a secure Broker of Record designation for commissions and breach of fiduciary responsibilities and duties in executing timely compensation. There were also innumerable hours of wasted time spent by agents on hold with Covered California, health plans, and insurance companies trying to resolve the issues of being compensated for Covered California enrollments. With over 10,000 Certified Insurance Agents helping consumers during open enrollment for 2014, the lost commissions and damages could total into the millions of dollars.
If you suffered a loss…
Mr. Dickey states that he would be the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit but there needs to be a substantial number of agents who are willing to lend their names, though their identities will be anonymous, in the filing of such a class action as members of the “class” for a lawsuit to move forward. The law firm also needs to assess the damages caused by any Covered California negligence so Mr. Dickey is requesting that agents estimate the annual dollar amount of commissions still owed or lost. Certified Insurance Agents who feel they have incurred monetary injury as a result of Covered California actions and would like to be part of class action lawsuit can email John Dickey at jdickey254@sbcglobal.net