At the request of the company, A.M. Best said it has withdrawn the ratings of the Senior Health Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania.

The ratings service announced it has affirmed the financial strength rating of “C” (weak) and issuer credit rating of “ccc+” for SHIP of Bensalem, Pa., formerly known as Conseco Senior Health Insurance Co. The outlook for both ratings is “negative.”

The new ownership of SHIP was approved in November 2008 by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Prior to that, the company operated under the Conseco name and from 1997 to 2000, a number of other long-term care insurance companies merged into or were acquired by Conseco.

In May 2008, state insurance regulators for 40 jurisdictions in the U.S. reached a regulatory settlement with Conseco on issues including claims not being handles in a timely manner and claim files not being property documented or maintained. Conseco was ordered to pay a $2.3 million fine and $30 million in claims-handling improvements and restitution.

Soon after the settlement, Conseco announced plans to transfer the company to an independent trust, created by the PID and overseen by a board of trustees and run by SHIP.

Regarding the ratings withdrawal, A.M. Best said the action reflects a decision by SHIP’s management to withdraw from the ratings service’s interactive rating process.

A.M. Best noted that despite continued statutory operating losses of $37 million in the first quarter, SHIP’s current absolute and risk-adjusted capitalization rate is adequate.

The ratings service said it believes that SHIP will likely require a combination of rate increases, reduced benefits and policyholder forfeitures to maintain sufficient capitalization over the long term.

In addition, as a private company, SHIP has no access to additional capital, A.M. Best said, and should benefit from lower expenses going forward as it operates without a profit motive.

11 Responses

1. Frederick K Haag Says:
   January 24th, 2011 at 9:15 pm

   my parnets have been dealing with this, (these) companies. Now that that i have taken over thier finances eetc, it become extremely difficult to get information. currently an additional policy, in my my mothers name has appeared. The first six numbers match the original policy, but a * andanother number has been added. A separate bill is being sent. I have given no permission or read any literature about these changes.

2. Frederick K Haag Says:
   March 26th, 2011 at 1:32 pm

   I think they have a mailroom problem. A bill comes for my father but not for my mother. I called and found that they were supposedly mailed the same day. They tried to blame on Postal workers. Time to submit a formal complaint.

3. Frederick K Haag Says:
   April 1st, 2011 at 7:44 pm

   April 1, 2011,
   No bill for my Mothers portion of the premium. Did you ever hear of this ?Asked for copy of one of the policies. It took 6 weeks.
   No bill for other policy, Six monthes, first third party billing, made current, now no bill. Policy has lapsed.Is this company for real.
   Oh, it must be the post office again not delivering.

4. Mark Wolff Says:
   April 11th, 2011 at 3:25 pm

   SHIP has been impossible to deal with in the last few months.
   They are preying on my 91 year old mother denying her one claim after another for no reasons, other that thier own ineffeciencies and misinformation.
   .
   The consistently get the wrong information on my mother to deny her claims, then once it is pointed outthat thie information is wrong they come up with another reason to deny her claims.

   Thier business practices are poor. You cannot contact anyone via email.

   You cannot contact anyone via phone at thier respective extension.

   They have not merged thier systems in over 3 years and information that should be readily aavailbale to thier customer service people is not. The level of exasperation from their personel is very high. It seems they know that they are under orders to DENY, DENY and DENY some more.

   Thier CEO , Greg Serio, is unresponsive. I guess the windows in his office have changed from rose colored to smoke. It matches the mirrors that the company uses to portray themselves as efficent and caring when in my opinion they are anything but.

   My long term care is in the hands of a 5A1 company not a company like SHIP.

   God help the people who put thier trust inthe management people of SHIP

5. CNakagawa Says:
   April 21st, 2011 at 1:46 pm

   It seems that SHIP is overseen by the PA Department of Insurance. While there is NO ONE to answer their published number (877) 450-5824 (only a recording) you may want to call the PA DOI directly and ask to speak to the person overseeing SHIP. We’ve found the persons answering the “support” number (317) 566-7500 listed on the SHIP site to be not only unhelpful but down right rude.

6. Landon Brent, in SC Says:
   July 29th, 2011 at 4:28 pm

   I am my mother power of attorney. She filed around a year ago with Conseco (now SHIP) for Her long term insurance for home health care. They paid the claims for 4 months that were submitted bu the provider. Then they stopped! They actually told us they mailed a check June 28, 2011. It is July 29th now. They said that they could “put a tracer on it” What BS. They even had her re-evcaluated to see if she still required in home care. THey approved her until April 2012, but they still do not respond to claims submitted. You can google my name and state and find my businnes number if you would like to compare notes…

7. Cassie Smith, Portage WI Says:
   August 18th, 2011 at 4:17 pm

   My grandfather has had a policy with SHIP since 1998. A while back, Russell had cataract surgery and there was hemorrhaging. Long story short, he is now legally blind. He has a long term care policy with SHIP and has been denied benefits for nearly two years now. Even though he was approved for three ADLs, SHIP keeps backing up and saying that the nurses aren’t helping him correctly at home and that stand-by assistance does not consistute benefit payments. All that SHIP has done for my grandfather is taken his money and created a lot of headaches for my family. How are seniors supposed to get help if insurance plans that they pay premiums for, don’t follow through? I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I worked for a company like SHIP.

8. Darwin Bears Says:
   August 29th, 2011 at 2:44 pm

   Aug. 29, 2011 We have been dealing with this company since July 2011. They continue to ask for more information from the nursing home. The nursing home says they have sent it and each time I call I get some new piece of info they need. I ask to speak to the case worker for my father-in-law’s case and they will not give me a chance to speak to that person. I give them a name from a letter I received and I cannot speak to that person unless I have an extension number. I wish my f-i-l had never invested money in this long term care policy. I have turned it over to the MO insurance people to look into. When they heard that they refused to talk to me any more and said I would have to go through the MO people to get any info.

9. Beth Gifford Says:
   December 28th, 2011 at 12:22 am

   This company is just unbelievable. I have been fighting with SHIP on behalf of my parents since August 2011. They continue to come back and require more paperwork, or the same paperwork over and over. They continually use language that says they require the claimant to meet this requirement OR that; and other times say they require the claimant to meet this requirement AND that. Which is it?

   I am convinced that SHIP preys on elderly policy holders with the statistical hope that a high percentage will just give up in their complex claims process. Then they close the claim and keep the cash. If we could see their financial statement, I would wager SHIP is in a pretty healthy cash position. My parents on the other hand, not so much. On a fixed income we have private paid, out of their life savings, over $80,000 for care. My dad is in stage 4 Alzheimer’s and SHIP refuses to acknowledge cognitive impairment. He has been on medication for Alzheimer’s since 2003 and Namenda was added mid-2011. (He doesn’t even know what state he lives in!) Despite the physician’s certification submission SHIP continues to deny my dad’s claim for care in assisted living.

   I have filed complaints with the State of Ohio Department of Insurance, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Insurance, and the Better Business Bureau in Indiana.

   I’ve had it! I’m meeting with an attorney tomorrow.

10. Kae Arrington Says:
    January 27th, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    Unlike the other commenters, I have had a positive experience with SHIP. My step-mom had to move into assisted living due to dementia last spring. It took about 60 days to get the payments up and coming in. The benefit went up 5% right on time and they quit charging a premium after 90 days as promised in the policy. I was suprised to see they are rated so poorly.

Pages linking to this article:

• LEARN FROM EXPERT: Senior Health Insurance Company Of Pennsylvania
  

  [...] Ratings withdrawn for Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania – At the request of the company, A.M. Best said it has withdrawn the ratings of the Senior Health Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania. The ratings service announced preview [...]

Leave a Comment