Health insurance enter key on keyboardThe investigation was conducted at the request of Senate Democrats, who suspected that companies selling limited-benefit products that were not compliant with ACA requirements were misrepresenting their plans.

Many individuals shopping for a health insurance plan on the ACA exchanges turn to brokers to help wade through the options and pick the plan that's right for them. However, a recent audit by the Government Accountability Office suggests that those brokers aren't always acting in the consumer's best interest.

As reported by The Hill, GAO employees posing as consumers shopping for health insurance conducted 31 phone calls with brokers. While the results showed an appropriate outcome in 21 of the calls, brokers appeared to intentionally mislead consumers in eight instances, and in two instances, the representatives were inconsistent but did not appear to be intentionally deceptive.

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Emily Payne

Emily Payne is director, content analytics for ALM's Business & Finance Markets and former managing editor for BenefitsPRO. A Wisconsin native, she has spent the past decade writing and editing for various athletic and fitness publications. She holds an English degree and Business certificate from the University of Wisconsin.