Benefytt to refund $100M to customers who paid for sham health plans

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ordered a Florida-based company to refund $100 million to consumers who received sham healthcare insurance plans bundled with services they did not order.

Benefytt Technologies, along with two subsidiaries, former Chief Executive Gavin Southwell, and former Vice President of Sales Amy Brady, lied to consumers “about their sham health insurance plans” and used “deceptive lead generation websites to lure them in,” the FTC alleged in a press release Monday. Benefytt also made it difficult to cancel plans and services, including those they did not order.

Benefytt and Southwell were repeatedly warned by the company’s compliance professionals that sales representatives from Benefytt and a major subsidiary misled customers about the health plans offered, according to a complaint filed by the FTC in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Those warnings were ignored, the complaint stated. The practices began when Southwell, a former chief risk officer for a large independent global wholesale and reinsurance brokerage, joined the company, the FTC said.

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