At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, tens of thousands of consumers who bought medical discount plans from Simple Health Plans LLC will be notified they do not have comprehensive health insurance but can enroll in a new plan during a special enrollment period.

The FTC alleged Hollywood-based Simple Health marketed policies deceptively as comprehensive health insurance. The enrollment offer is open to policyholders still paying monthly premiums.

The notices were authorized by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which is overseeing a lawsuit filed last year by the FTC against Simple Health. The agency alleged the company collected more than $100 million by selling Americans worthless plans that left tens of thousands of people uninsured.

Notices to Simple Health customers who still are paying will state their products are “not comprehensive health insurance” and “If you get sick or have to go to the hospital, you may have to pay almost all of your medical bills.”

The notices will provide a phone number and a link to a website where consumers can cancel their products and stop the monthly billing. The notices also inform consumers that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is offering a special enrollment period to apply for comprehensive coverage and instructions for signing up.

The FTC said consumers who were deceived by Simple Health and still are paying are billed by a third party administrator, Health Insurance Innovations Inc., which is not a defendant in the FTC's case against Simple Health.

“There is good cause to believe that due to defendants' deceptive sales practices, many existing customers still believe that they purchased comprehensive health insurance or its equivalent from defendants and do not know the true nature of the products for which they are being charged,” U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami wrote in an order authorizing the notices.

“Consumers should be provided with an opportunity to make an informed decision about whether they would like to continue paying for and receiving the products,” he added.

Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. Meyerowitz is the Director of the Insurance Coverage Law Center and editor-in-chief of journals on insurance law, banking law, bankruptcy law, energy law, government contracting law, and privacy and cybersecurity law, among other subjects. Contact him at smeyerowitz@meyerowitzcommunications.com.