A shocking I-Team investigation showed you how insurance companies can legally cancel a group's health coverage without telling them the group's members Now, the state Commissioner of Insurance has launched another investigation into the same case the I-Team investigated.

Dan Szerbowski of West Bend didn't know his health insurance company dumped him until after he got colon cancer and had surgery.

"My brain is so numb over all this lately," Szerbowski sighed in a recent interview.

When Szerbowski's boss bounced the check he wrote to secure the insurance policy for his employees from United Healthcare, the company canceled it -- three months before Szerbowski got sick.

"We just were in shock," said Szerbowski's wife, Sharon. "We couldn't believe that he let this happen."

Neither Szerbowski's boss nor the insurance company said a word to him, so last fall, he filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

"I have dealt with my share of hospitals, and you just feel for someone like that," said Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg.

But after looking into Szerbowski's complaint, an examiner told Szerbowski in a letter, "While I understand and appreciate the frustration that caused you to contact us, I am unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction."

The letter went on to say, "Based on the information provided, it appears that insurance company did not violate an insurance law or regulation."

Under Wisconsin law, insurance companies only have to notify a policy's administrator when it cancels coverage. It's the boss's job to tell the employees. Szerbowski's boss didn't do that.

"We talked every day. Nobody let me know," Szerbowski recalled.

But after the I-Team started asking questions about Szerbowski's case, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance re-opened the complaint a few weeks ago.


"We feel there are some issues there that warrant looking at it again," Dilweg said.

The Commissioner won't say what those issues are until his investigation is done. However, he did say his office deals with more than 8,000 complaints every year, and that it's not uncommon for cases to be reopened.