New dental, vision coverage offered

UnitedHealthcare’s Golden Rule Insurance Co. is offering dental and vision plans in Hawaii for the first time.

The dental plans with optional vision coverage are available to consumers of all ages — including Medicare recipients and children — and do not require applicants to have any other insurance plans through Golden Rule or one of its affiliate companies. Applicants for the plans automatically will be accepted if they meet Hawaii residency requirements and have no other dental insurance.

Golden Rule’s dental plans feature 100 percent coverage for preventive care with no deductible and no waiting period, as well as savings through UnitedHealthcare’s extensive national network of 152,700 dentists. Benefits of the new vision coverage include comprehensive eye examinations, prescription glasses and contacts. Discounts are offered through UnitedHealthcare’s vision network of more than 31,000 private practice and retail chain providers.

In Hawaii, United Healthcare’s network includes more than 338 dental network provider locations and 131 private practice and retail chain providers. For more information, call 800-444-8990 toll-free or go to www.goldenrule.com.

Feds fine online airline ticket services

WASHINGTON » Federal regulators are going after online ticketing services that fail to tell customers booking a flight on a major airline that a leg of their trip will be operated by a separate regional carrier.

The Department of Transportation said yesterday that five ticketing services — Fareportal Inc., American Travel Solutions, AirGorilla, Wholesale Travel Center Inc. and Automobile Club of New York Inc. — are being fined a combined $175,000 for failing to disclose such "code-sharing" arrangements.

Last month two other services, Flythere4less.com and Airtrade International Inc., were fined a combined $90,000.

Indonesia bans new Citibank cards

JAKARTA, Indonesia » Indonesian’s central bank banned Citibank yesterday from issuing new credit cards and hiring debt collectors for two years after a customer’s death.

The bans were imposed after a customer allegedly interrogated roughly by Citibank debt collectors in March died at a Jakarta branch of the bank.

Budi Rohadi, a deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, said the major U.S. bank also cannot receive new Citigold clients, those depositing 500 million rupiah ($58,000) or more in one year.

The family of the dead customer, Irzen Octa, who led a small political party, have filed a lawsuit against Citibank, seeking $100 million for material loss and $200 million immaterial loss. Octa, a Citibank customer for 30 years, went to the branch in southern Jakarta after being summoned by debt collectors. His lawyers said he owed Citibank $2,000 but was told by the debt collector that he owed $4,800.

Three debt collectors and two Citibank employees have been arrested. They will face up to 12 years in jail if convicted.

Citibank officials denied that bank employees harmed Octa.

ON THE MOVE

» Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has announced the following new physicians: 

– Dr. Anne Tran is a pediatric hospitalist at Moanalua Medical Center.

– Dr. Norka Wilkinson is a pediatrician at Maui Lani Clinic in Wailuku.

— Dr. Robert Matyas has joined Kaiser as a family medicine physician at the Honolulu Clinic.

» The third annual Frank Haines Award for lifetime achievement, dedication and devotion to the field of historic preservation was awarded April 18 to William R. Chapman, director of the graduate program in historic preservation and a professor in the American studies department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Chapman has been a professor at UH-Manoa for 18 years.

» Hawaii Electric Light Co. and American Savings Bank have donated $35,000 to Hospice of Hilo. The funds will support the construction of the first neighbor island inpatient hospice facility, which will serve terminally ill patients who are unable to be cared for at home. The facility will include a living room, meditation room, dining room, kitchen, office space, meeting rooms and other common areas.