South Carolina legislators want insurance carriers to foot the bill to add investigators and prosecutors to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office to fight insurance fraud. A bill suggested by Rep. Daniel L. Tripp, R-Greenville would also implement tougher penalties to prosecute insurance fraud, which has risen by about 61 percent in South Carolina in five years.
Tripp brainstormed yesterday in Columbia with nearly 50 concerned industry officials, state regulators and prosecutors to discuss how to beef up existing laws, which many deem too soft. According to a report in the Post and Courier, officials also talked about how to fund more manpower, including a possible assessment on insurance carriers.
Tripp, along with nearly a dozen lawmakers, put together a similar bill last year that ultimately failed. The legislation stalled when differences arose about how assessments would be levied. Tripp said he will reintroduce new legislation in January.
Fraud complaints have increased for five years in South Carolina, while the number of state employees fighting fraud has decreased from 20 to four including two agents, one prosecutor and one assistant.
“If we can fight fraud, it’s good for the carriers, it’s good for the consumers, it’s good for everyone except those who commit fraud,” Tripp said. “At the end of the day, we want to figure out how best to fight fraud.”
A key component discussed during the meeting is increasing the number of investigators and prosecutors assigned to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office Insurance Fraud Division. That office has only one prosecutor and two State Law Enforcement Division agents and a $300,000 budget to investigate and prosecute as many as 600 criminal cases in a year.
“We have two people in South Carolina doing what other states have 30 people doing,” Lynn Szymoniak, a lawyer whose firms specialize in fighting fraud for the insurance industry in Florida and South Carolina explained. “It doesn’t matter how good your people are. You have to have a larger staff. There are too many people out there committing fraud.”
Last year’s bill would have assessed carriers about $2.5 million to help fund more investigators and prosecutors and create a civil enforcement unit under the Department of Insurance. Trey Walker, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said $750,000 of that money that would have gone to his department could have funded a half-dozen additional prosecutors in an office in which the budget has been slashed by 35 percent in recent years.
Last year, there were 844 complaints of fraud in South Carolina, totaling $3.7 million in estimated losses. National estimates put the loss to fraud between $80 billion and $120 billion annually, which ultimately gets passed on to the consumers to the tune of an extra $1,030 more per family each year in higher premiums.
“We support any efforts to help fight insurance fraud,” David Reddick, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies state affairs manager said. “We’ll be anxious to see if Attorney General Henry McMaster brings forth any legislative initiatives to help increase his staff to fight fraud in South Carolina.”
Topics Carriers Fraud Legislation South Carolina
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Three Charged With Helping Agents Cheat on Florida Insurance License Exams 
Coverage Needed: Hundreds of Thousands in SE Now in Flood Zones With New Maps 
House Collapses Into Flood-Swollen River Near Minnesota Dam Amid Storms 
‘Extremely Dangerous’ Hurricane Beryl Takes Aim at Caribbean 
