Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/725040
BENMARGOT—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A man passes by a Wells Fargo bank office in Oakland. ByKenSweet The Associated Press NEW YORK California and federal regulators fined Wells Fargo a combined $185 million on Thursday, alleging the bank's employ- ees illegally opened mil- lions of unauthorized ac- counts for their customers in order to meet aggressive sales goals. The San Francisco-based bank will pay $100 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency created five years ago; $35 million to the Of- fice of the Comptroller of the Currency and $50 million to the City and County of Los Angeles.Itwillalsopayresti- tutiontoaffectedcustomers. It is the largest fine the CFPB has levied against a financial institution and the largest fine in the history of the Los Angeles City Attor- ney's office. The CFPB said Wells Fargo sales staff opened more than 2 million bank and credit card accounts that may have not been authorized by customers. Money in customers' ac- counts were transferred to these new accounts without authorization. Debit cards were issued and activated, as well as PINs created, without telling customers. In some cases, Wells Fargo employees even cre- ated fake email addresses to sign up customers for on- line banking services. "Wells Fargo built an in- centive-compensation pro- gram that made it possible for its employees to pursue underhanded sales prac- tices, and it appears that the bank did not monitor the program carefully," said CFPB Director Richard Cor- dray. The behavior was wide- spread, the CFPB and other regulators said, involving thousands of Wells Fargo employees. Los Angeles City Attor- ney Mike Feuer called Wells Fargo's behavior "outra- geous" and a "major breach of trust." "Consumers must be able to trust their banks," Feuer said. Wells Fargo's aggressive sales tactics were first dis- closed by The Los Angeles Times in an investigation in 2013 . The story series prompted the Los Angeles City Attorney office to sue Wells Fargo over its tactics. Roughly 5,300 employees at Wells Fargo were fired in connection with this behav- ior, according to Los Ange- les City Attorney's office. In a statement, Wells Fargo said: "We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request." Wells Fargo said they've re- funded $2.6 million in fees associated with any prod- uct that was opened with- out authorization. Despite the LA Times in- vestigation, Wells Fargo is still known for having ag- gressive sales goals for its employees. Wells Fargo's executives highlight every quarter the bank's so-called "cross sale ratio," which is the number of products the bank sales to each of their individual customers. We ll s Fa rg o fi ne d $1 85 M over account openings BANKING By Josh Funk The Associated Press OMAHA, NEB. The Ameri- can Indians challenging an oil pipeline that would cross four states have some legal advantages in a courtroom, particularly their tribe's sta- tus as a sovereign nation with long ties to the land in question. But stopping a major project like the Dakota Ac- cess pipeline after construc- tion has begun is difficult, and even if the Standing Rock Sioux win in federal court, the end result might simply be an altered route. Ajudgeisexpectedtorule Friday on whether to block construction of the pipeline thatissupposedtopassclose tothetribalreservationnear the North Dakota-South Dakota border. No matter what the court decides, op- ponents seem prepared for a longfight,followingmanyof the same tactics used to de- feattheCanada-to-Nebraska segment of the Keystone XL pipeline. The tribe's lawsuit al- leges that the Dakota Ac- cess pipeline violates sev- eral federal laws, including the National Historic Pres- ervation Act, and threat- ens the region's water sup- ply and sacred ancient sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. The tribe argues that the Corps should not have used a streamlined permit pro- cess when it reviewed the pipeline and that engineers did not do enough to con- sult with tribal members about the $3.8 billion proj- ect as required by the his- toric-preservation law. The Corps disputes those allegations. The consultation require- ment is an example of how the tribe's status as a sov- ereign nation could give it more influence, said Tom King, a consultant who has worked with tribes and businesses on historic-pres- ervation issues for roughly five decades. As a sovereign nation, the tribe is entitled to a formal process for airing any concerns. That process does not apply to a nearby rancher, for instance. Other tribes have pre- vailed under similar cir- cumstances. Earlier this year, federal officials cancelled an oil and gas lease in northwest Mon- tana because the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Can- ada said the project would disturb an area they con- sider sacred. The Corps rejected a $700 million coal-export terminal proposed for Washington state because regulators decided the project would violate the Lummi tribe's treaty-pro- tected fishing rights. The 1,172-mile Dakota Ac- cess project gained enough state and federal approvals to begin construction this summer on some sections of the route through North Da- kota,SouthDakota,Iowaand Illinois. Some of the work is on hold until the judge rules. The success of the fight against the failed Keystone XL pipeline has embold- ened environmental groups, said Indiana University pro- fessor David Konisky, but he does not think the protests and lawsuits will stop the Dakota Access project. "I suspect it will be de- layed and possibly changed, but all indications are it will be built," said Konisky, who studies public policy and has written a book about public attitudes on energy. LAWSUIT Tribe challenging pipeline has some advantages in courtroom By Tom Murphy The Associated Press Tracey Stahl lost part of a leg to bone cancer last fall, and she has to wince through bouts of crippling pain from an ill-fitting ar- tificial limb because of a strange health insurance limit: Her plan covers just one limb per lifetime. She now has to weigh whether to dump the nearly $9,000 cost of a new leg on her credit card as she fights her insurance com- pany over the restriction. "I feel — it's embarrassing to say — paralyzed about what to do," said Stahl, from her home in Penfield, New York. Caiti Riley's left leg was amputated below the knee at age 4 due to a rare birth defect. The San Antonio resident is 31 now and cov- ered by the best insurance she's ever had. Her plan is paying most of the roughly $5,000 bill for a new run- ning leg to complement the one she uses every day. "I work out every day, there's nothing really that I can't do now," she said. Glaring differences in insurance coverage per- sist for amputees, chil- dren with autism and oth- ers in need of certain ex- pensive treatments even after the Affordable Care Act set new standards as part of its push to expand and improve coverage, and despite efforts by states to mandate coverage for some treatments. These differences don't develop simply because some people pay more for better coverage. Instead, they stem from random factors like what state someone lives in or who happens to provide their coverage — and often peo- ple can do nothing about it. The federal health care law largely leaves decisions on what actually gets covered up to states or employers who provide insurance for their workers. These gaps can bury pa- tients in debt or force them to skip care. And they may become more common as health care costs continue to rise and insurers and employers look for ways to control that expense. Researcher Sabrina Cor- lette thinks nothing short of federal action can close these coverage gaps, and she doesn't see that hap- pening anytime soon. "I think you would need to see Congress say, 'Ok, we need more uniformity here,'" said Corlette, a Georgetown Health Policy Institute professor. "And I just don't see this Congress or any near-term Congress stepping in and wanting to do that." States have passed about 1,800 mandates requir- ing the coverage of vari- ous treatments or condi- tions, according to the Na- tional Conference of State Legislatures. But those mandates don't extend be- yond state borders, and they don't apply to the self- funded coverage offered by nearly all large employers. North Carolina, for ex- ample, recently became one of 44 states to require coverage of autism treat- ments — and it won't help Iris Castillo one bit. The Raleigh, North Car- olina, resident said it felt like a cold bucket of wa- ter had been tossed on her when she learned that in- surance from her new job won't cover applied behav- ior analysis therapy for her 9-year-old son, Alex. Hours of this daily ther- apy, which is a standard treatment for autistic chil- dren, have helped Alex learn simple tasks like how to brush his teeth or say hi to another kid. Castillo worries that her son will regress if treatment stops. But it can cost more than $40,000 a year, far beyond what Castillo's family can afford. "You don't feel like you're in control," she said. Her employer's coverage is self-funded, which means it pays its own health care bills instead of buying cov- erage from an insurer. That also means it doesn't have to comply with most state coverage mandates. Employers have been slowly switching to this type of coverage for sev- eral years to help control what has become one of their largest expenses and to avoid some of the re- quirements imposed by the ACA, said Robert Lasze- wski, a health care consul- tant and former insurance executive. He expects gaps or differences in coverage to become more common as health expenses grow. Insurers and employ- ers routinely cover organ transplants, heart proce- dures and other expen- sive surgeries. But cover- age still varies widely for a range of patients that also includes people recovering from eating disorders like anorexia and women who need breast reduction sur- gery to ease back pain. The cost of a particular treatment, the need for it in a covered population and lingering disagreements over necessity help explain some coverage differences. Bariatric surgery, which can improve the health of obese patients by limit- ing food intake, can cost $7,000 to $30,000. Cover- age is improving, and Dr. John Morton estimates that about 75 percent of pa- tients who need the surgery have some insurance for it. But the quality of that coverage varies widely, ac- cording to the Stanford School of Medicine sur- geon. Some plans only cover the procedure for se- verely obese patients, while others may charge deduct- ibles of around $10,000, which can dissuade many from having surgery. An annual survey of large employers by the ben- efits firm Mercer found that 40 percent offered no cov- erage for infertility treat- ment last year. Some com- panies don't view it as es- sential to a person's health, while others with an eye to- ward attracting and keep- ing good workers, have started offering the cover- age to help LGBT patients conceive. HEALTH CARE Why insurance denies your claim, but pays your neighbor's ERIC GAY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Caiti Riley, who lost her le leg when she was 4, stands near her home in San Antonio. | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 4 B