I went to work for Vicare in January. At first it seemed like a nice little company that acted as a third party adminstrator for self funded health insurance plans.
I worked my way up to manager of the fully insured department and in early the problems started.
I was the employee that processed the other employees health insurance claims and cut the checks to the providers to be paid.in June I was told by the accounting department, that Vicare was not "funding" it's own health insurance premium. (Vicare insured it's own employees thru their fully insured division.) I was told to hold the checks at my desk and the accounting department would let me know when to release them. I also held the checks for around the other 100 small fully insured groups that were covered as well, as there was never enough funds to cover them all.
This continued from June until September when Benchmark, the underwriter for this product, came to Vicare and took all claims and checks from Vicare as Vicare was not reporting to them as was agreed upon.
I contacted Benchmark and spoke with John Spain. I explained who I was and what position that I held with Vicare. It was at this time that I learned that Vicare had not paid its health insurance premiums since March 1. Therefore anyone that went to the doctor or incurred any medical expense from March 1 until October 31, was not really covered.
I alone have about $3000.00 in medical claims that have never been paid. There were other Vicare employees that were hospitalized and had surgeries that have never been paid.
Vicare closed it's doors in April and since that time I have been interviewed by the Virginia Insurance Commission, Department of Labor, FBI, and the Virginia State Police all with no resolve.
The Virginia State Insurance Commission, did send me a letter stating that my complaint to them was founded, but when I called to follow up, I was told that the matter was being handled by the US Department of Labor. The Department of Labor (Kim Langer) told me that she had 25 other cases on her desk and that this case could take years to resolve.
This is not the only allegation of wrongdoing that Vicare has done, but it is by far the most hurtful to its employees. I have other information regarding Vicares history with questionable groups in Texas, Florida, New York, & New Jersey. One such case is NGMP Trust in Texas, and a group known as SBWA.
The former employees at Vicare still have not had their 401K money turned over to them, questions have been raised as far as deductions from their checks to the United Way, (I was told that this money was not turned over to the charity), and of course their still unpaid medical bills.
No one from the local level of government, all the way up, seems to care. The CEO & COO of this company, has now opened a new company in the health insurance field yet again, not five miles from where they operated Vicare. These men knew what was going on, yet continued their lifestyles, all the while the employees of this company is being hounded by creditors from their unpaid medical bills.
If anyone has any suggestions, please post.
I have contacted lawyers without success as the company is now out of business. However, Vicare has not filed bankruptcy, and the board of directors was made up of several local hospitals and physicians.
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