The state of Maine’s Bureau of Insurance has announced that it had helped recover more than $1.3 million for consumers through its insurance fraud investigations in 2021.
According to Insurance Superintendent Eric Cioppa, the department’s consumer divisions conducted 435 investigations last year. An official release offered a breakdown of the department’s investigation efforts, as well as the total amount of money recovered for consumers:
In its official release, the bureau explained that the cases it investigates “involve a wide range of circumstances,” such as complaints of improper billing, delayed claims processing, improper denial of payment for medical treatment, and illegal insurance sales practices.
News of the regulator’s anti-fraud efforts come after Cioppa announced earlier this month that he would be retiring on April 01, 2022. Cioppa spent 33 years at the Maine Bureau of Insurance, including 10 as superintendent and 13 as deputy superintendent. He first joined the bureau in 2988 as a statistician, then later served as supervisor of the workers’ compensation section. He then moved on to fill the role of deputy superintendent in 1998, and then superintendent in 2011. Cioppa’s role as superintendent was reconfirmed by the Legislature in 2017.
