Montana Insurance Fraud Laws

Created by FindLaw's team of legal writers and editors | Last reviewed June 20, 2016

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In Montana, insurance fraud is criminalized under the state's Insurance Fraud Protection Act. The purpose of the act is to spot cases of insurance fraud and to reduce their occurrence. The table below outlines Montana's main insurance fraud law.

Code Section

Montana Code section 33-1-1202: Insurance Fraud

What's Prohibited?

  • Purposely obtaining any money or benefit by presenting (or causing to be presented) a written or oral statement to an insurer that contains false, incomplete, or misleading information about any material support for a claim for payment or for another benefit under an insurance policy
  • Assisting, abetting, soliciting, or conspiring with another to prepare or make any written or oral statement containing false, incomplete, or misleading information about any fact that is intended to be presented to an insurer in order to support a claim for payment or for another benefit under an insurance policy
  • Presenting (or causing to be presented) a materially false or altered insurance application to an insurer
  • Accepting premium money knowing that coverage won't be provided
  • As a health care provider, submitting a false or altered bill, or a false report of physical condition to an insurer
  • Offering or accepting a direct or indirect inducement to file a false insurance claim with the intent of deceiving an insurer, or
  • Presenting (or causing to be presented) counterfeit insurance documents to any person

Penalties

The commissioner may:

  • Impose a fine of up to $25,000 (for insurance producers or adjusters the fine may not exceed $5,000)
  • Require the offender to pay the costs of the proceeding, and
  • Require the offender to make restitution to the insurer (or to any other person harmed) for all financial loss sustained as a result of the insurance fraud

Additionally, any person who purposefully or knowingly commits insurance commits theft, and can be punished under section 45-6-301.

Reporting Insurance Fraud

In Montana, any person who knows or who believes that an act of insurance fraud is being or has been committed may report the suspected fraud to the fraud commissioner. So long as the report isn't made with malice, an insurer, officer, employee, producer of the insurer, independent adjuster, administrator, consultant, or any private person receives immunity from civil liability in Montana if the person:

  • Cooperates with, furnishes evidence to, or provides information about any suspected insurance fraud to the commissioner (or to another designated fraud prevention organization), or
  • Complies with a court order requesting evidence or testimony

Additional Resources

State laws change frequently. For case specific information regarding Montana's insurance fraud laws contact a local criminal defense attorney or consumer protection lawyer.

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