Insurance agent not liable to man who lost coverage over missed initial payment

David Baugher//October 14, 2022//

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Buchanan County jurors found for an insurance agent in the case of a man who faced massive medical bills after confusion over his premium payment left him without coverage.

“My agent tried to do everything she could to work with the plaintiff on getting the health insurance company to extend coverage or take that payment after the fact,” said attorney Destiny Bounds of Kutak Rock.

Bounds represented agent Rebecca Livengood in the matter filed by plaintiff Larry Knapp, who registered for insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City in 2013. He believed he’d made arrangements to handle the initial premium by signing up for automatic payments, said plaintiff’s attorney William Bird of Bird Law Firm.

Knapp contracted swine flu in January 2014 and became so ill he spent two weeks in a coma. He regained consciousness to find hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and an unexpected denial of coverage by his insurer who said they had never received a payment.

The automatic payment program, known as Tech-No-Check, was only designed to handle future payments but Bounds said the initial premium needed to be paid by Knapp directly.

The suit alleged neither the direct enrollment form nor the documents signed for Tech-No-Check made any disclosure of that fact and Knapp had received his insurance and prescription cards in December.

The parties disputed whether Livengood had informed Knapp that his initial payment needed to be made as soon as the insurer billed him. Knapp alleged that Livengood never made the disclosure and, in fact, told him the opposite. Livengood contended that she informed Knapp multiple times as part of her standard procedures.

Bird said he respected the jury’s decision but called it “unfortunate.”

“Honestly, I don’t think they wanted to pin this on the insurance agent,” he said. “They blamed the insurance company.”

The insurer and various corporate entities were initially named in the suit but settled out of court under undisclosed terms.

Defense verdict

Professional liability