According to a New York State Department of Financial Services press release under Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow:
· House of Prayer and Life, Inc. d/b/a Jericho Share or Jericho Health Share purported to act as a federally-authorized Health Care Sharing Ministry.
· Instead of properly qualifying under that federal law, DFS found Jericho had operated as an unlicensed insurance business. DFS determined Jericho sold insurance products that it misrepresented as health care sharing ministry member sharing plan to nearly 20,000 New York residents.
· Jericho will pay a penalty of $250,000, plus $35,000 in refunds to New York residents.
· “Through use of disclaimers and non-insurance terminology in plan materials, Jericho designed its products to evade the provisions of the Insurance Law,” said DFS.
· Jericho is required to process pending and future requests for payment of medical costs associated with the final New York members and make all required payments pursuant to these requests, after which it will cease its operations.
The Consent Order may be found here.