FISHER BANS UNLICENSED COMPANY:

Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher issued an order preventing an unlicensed Georgia firm from selling workers’ compensation insurance in Oklahoma. Atlanta-based Exceptional Personnel Inc., which also does business as EPI, allegedly sold a bogus workers’ compensation insurance policy to a company that had earlier been a target of an order by Fisher. EPI claims not to be an insurance company but an employee-leasing firm. According to the Oklahoma Insurance Department, under an agreement with Oklahoma City-based LaborSource, the Georgia firm was to provide workers’ comp coverage from Realm National Insurance Co. through American Insurance Managers. New York-based Realm previously used Atlanta-based AIM to sell insurance policies. Officials with EPI claimed the policy in question was actually written by Realm through AIM, but Realm and AIM both said the policy certificates were invalid. The two were earlier the targets of an OID investigation concerning the use of fraudulent workers’ comp insurance certificates. At the time, officials with Realm said AIM was unauthorized to sell its workers’ comp policies. Realm officials said they have since severed all ties with AIM. EPI claimed to have provided workers’ comp coverage for Oklahoma City-based LaborSource through an employee leasing arrangement in which both were co-employers of the firm’s temporary work force. Ironically, LaborSource officials contacted EPI for help obtaining workers’ comp insurance after Fisher ordered it to obtain new coverage. If any of the companies try to sell fake insurance policies, they can be fined $25,000.