Insurance Agent for Mississippi School System Denies Complaint

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Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said his office is looking into a complaint that a retiree benefit adviser in the Pascagoula school system steered retirees to private plan she was selling.

Chaney told The Mississippi Press that the complaints allege Jackie Theisen, the Pascagoula district’s retiree benefit adviser, was soliciting district retirees to switch their state health benefits to a private insurance policy she was selling through Humana Health Insurance.

Theisen told the newspaper that the claims are false. Theisen said she is the district’s retiree benefit adviser and an independent agent with Humana.

“And, now, just because of this happening, I’m not selling to any more employees or former employees of the school district,” Theisen said.

According to the complaint, Theisen recommended retirees drop their state benefits and purchase the new policy, which she claimed was better and cheaper.

However, Chaney said once a state retiree drops state insurance, he or she can never have it reinstated.

“What’s happening here is statewide and a terrible gray area that we call bait-and-switch,” Chaney told the newspaper. “The less retirees a school district has enrolled in the state plan, the cheaper it is for that district.”

Billie Kouns, who retired from College Park Elementary in 1997, told the newspaper that she made the change with Theisen’s advice in 2008, only to discover she no longer had 100 percent coverage as she previously had with the state policy.

The 62-year-old Kouns said she was forced to drop the Humana policy because of steep co-pays and had no insurance coverage for more than a month. She said she even had to discontinue oxygen treatments for a time, which she required to live normally.

Kouns has had a different 100 percent coverage insurance policy for the last two years that is almost $100 more monthly than the state health insurance.

Theisen said she did sell Kouns a policy when she attended a retiree benefit consultation with her husband, who was retiring from Singing River Elementary.

“We’ve addressed it and they found no wrongdoing,” Theisen said.

Chaney said he has asked school districts to have a benefit adviser explain a retiree’s benefit plan and then, if district officials want, have private insurance agents pitch policies in a separate consultation.

He said he’s never experienced a situation with a school employee pitching private insurance on the side.

“What’s going on is not right, but it’s not really wrong until the legislation changes, and I’m going to push for that next session,” Chaney said. “We’re here to protect the consumers. If they are thinking about dropping their state benefits, then they need to call my office and ask for comparisons.”

Gary Smith, the Pascagoula insurance agent who helped Kouns get her current insurance policy, said Theisen’s actions are appalling and he can’t believe she’s still employed with the district.

“If she does not get her insurance license pulled for this, then insurance agents all across the state can do whatever they want,” Smith said.

Smith said he has provided documents to Insurance Department investigators.