SIMI VALLEY : Regulators Close Accused Insurer

State regulators have obtained a court order to shut down indefinitely a Simi Valley insurance company accused of selling medical policies illegally.

But the firm’s operators have already disappeared, officials said Tuesday.

Several thousand people who purchased coverage from Physicians Benefit Plan may not be able to collect on their health care claims, Deputy California Atty. Gen. Susan Henrichsen said.

“It’s very sad for the people who now have no coverage or never did have effective coverage,” she said. “There does not appear to be any money to make refunds to people or to pay claims.”

The Simi Valley firm, which has also called itself Physicians Choice and Unified Benefit Plan, was not licensed by the California Department of Insurance. State officials said most of the funds collected as insurance premiums apparently were paid to the operators of the plan and its agents, leaving little money to pay medical care claims.

Over the past three months, state regulators have obtained temporary restraining orders, seeking to stop further policy sales and freeze the firm’s assets.

On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien granted a preliminary injunction, shutting the insurance company down until it obtains a state license or is cleared at a civil trial, Henrichsen said. She said no attorneys for Physicians Benefit Plan or company officials appeared Monday to argue against the order.

The insurance company’s offices in an industrial park on Enchanted Way have been vacant for several weeks, with no forwarding address posted. Its telephone number has been disconnected.

State officials do not know the whereabouts of company President Leo Patrick Goebel, said James Harrington, chief investigator for the California Department of Insurance.

No criminal charges have been filed. But investigators are trying to determine how many unpaid claims exist and whether company executives are continuing to collect premiums at another location, Harrington said.