New Mexico fraud victims get time to enroll for insurance

A company called Benefytt has been fined by the Federal Trade Commission and ordered to send letters to its customers informing them that the product the company sold them wasn't insurance and that they had no coverage. Chris Gartner of the Gartner Insurance Agency said that a number of people in the Gallup area sought medical treatment and discovered that they in fact were not covered.

The exchange, BeWellNM, typically only allows people to get insured during an open enrollment period under certain circumstances, Gartner said.

One of those circumstances would be a loss of insurance coverage.

Since Benefytt customers weren't sold actual insurance, Gartner said, they technically didn't experience a loss of insurance, and would not be entitled to a special enrollment period. After investigating the situation, however, state officials decided to open a special enrollment period.

The exchange decided to allow a 60-day period beginning the day the letters were sent out - Sept. 11.

"I was kind of stunned" to see the special period granted, Gartner said. "But happily stunned. So many people thought they bought insurance and incurred medical bills. This affected a lot of people." He said that consumers can check with the New Mexico Department of Insurance of a registered broker to ensure that they are getting useful insurance products.