Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. was fined $2 million on Tuesday by New York's Department of Financial Services in connection with allegations that the company violated state insurance laws.
The department found, after an investigation, that Cigna sold stop-loss insurance to small employers.
Employers that offer self-insured health plans use stop-loss to protect themselves against big claims.
New York state lets insurers sell stop-loss insurance only to large employers, officials said. New York state defines a large employer as an employer with more than 100 employees.
The New York department also found that Cigna illegally sold fully insured policies outside of the state to New York-based small groups with New York employees.
New York requires health insurers to use pure community rating. Insurers cannot charge more for older customers, or for other customers who appear to be likely to have a higher-than-average need for medical care.
"By deliberately choosing to write New York risks outside of New York, Cigna's actions harmed New York's community-rating program for small group employers," Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a statement. "Cigna cherry-picked risks, which may have improperly induced forum shopping in the New York small-group market."
