Ore. Fines ODS Health Plan for Reported Violations

ODS Health Plan, Inc., has been fined $17,500 for reported past violations of state insurance laws and administrative rules.

The Portland-based health insurer potentially faces an additional $20,000 penalty if Oregon’s Insurance Division of the Department of Consumer & Business Services (DCBS) finds that the company hasn’t corrected problems first reportedly identified during market conduct examinations in the 1990s.

“We’ll determine if an additional fine is warranted after we complete a follow-up examination of the company’s operations within the next six months,” said Oregon Insurance Administrator Joel Ario.

The $17,500 fine was imposed after a review of company records dated July through September of 2001, completed this year, reportedly found that ODS still hadn’t corrected a number of violations identified in earlier market conduct exams.

These included:

Failing to provide consumers with timely notice of their health insurance portability rights.

Insuring associations that had not been approved as group policyholders by the Insurance Division.

Issuing policies that didn’t include mandated health care benefits.