Payers have faced state penalties in 2026 for slow reimbursements, mishandled member complaints, and mental health parity violations. Fines in 2025 are here.
Payers fined by states in 2026:
- Cigna was fined $80,000 by Maryland in March after regulators determined a newly enacted automatic downcoding policy was not allowed under state law.
- Aetna was fined $550,000 by Pennsylvania in March following a market conduct exam that found violations in mental health parity laws.
- EmblemHealth was fined $2.5 million in February after an investigation by the New York attorney general’s office found the insurer violated parity laws and failed to ensure access to mental healthcare services because of inaccurate provider directory listings.
- Centene’s Health Net was fined $1.3 million by California in February “for mishandling payment disputes from doctors, hospitals and other providers.”
- Anthem Blue Cross was fined $15 million by California in January due to “longstanding and widespread failures” with handling member complaints
- 11 insurers were fined nearly $25 million by Georgia in January for violating state mental health parity laws, including Oscar, Anthem, Kaiser, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare, CareSource, and Alliant Health Plans.
- Kaiser Foundation Health Plan was fined $300,000 by Washington state in January for failing to comply with federal mental health parity requirements, though $100,000 of that amount was suspended.
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