State Workers’ Comp Insurer Dismisses From Executive Team
The State Compensation Insurance Fund on Tuesday "terminated the appointments" of its president and vice president of group insurance programs as part of an internal review of operations, the Sacramento Bee reports (Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, 3/22).
The review is related to the sale of discounted group insurance policies to individual employers, according to Jeanne Caine, chair of the insurer's board.
The dismissals of James Tudor, president, and Renee Koren, vice president of group insurance, were announced less than six months after two of the fund's five board members quit amid possible conflicts of interest with the group insurance programs.
The insurer's board had hired an outside legal team to look into the State Fund's reliance on questionable accounting techniques, and a lack of internal controls and financial transparency, according to state officials (Lifsher, Los Angeles Times, 3/21).
State Fund on Wednesday announced that Lawrence Mulryan, a former executive director of the California Insurance Guarantee Association, will be the interim president (Abate, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/22). The board plans to conduct a national search for a permanent replacement.
Jennifer Kerns, a spokesperson for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner (R), said Poizner "will be watching this situation closely in the coming weeks and months" (Sacramento Bee, 3/22).