A woman in Florida got into a car accident. She needed to see a doctor, but she didn’t have health insurance. So, she called a company named “Ask Gary” that was advertised with a phone number that started with 1-800. It turned out to be more of a scam than a help.
In 2009, Kathleen Weston was driving her Geo Metro, when she was rear-ended by another driver. The accident caused whiplash, and she says that her neck, back, and hips started to hurt immediately after the crash.
It is normal for people who have experienced a car accident to want to have a doctor take a look at their injuries. Most people try to get medical care as soon as they possibly can after being in a car accident. This is a wise idea, because a person could, potentially, have suffered a serious injury that needs immediate treatment.
Unfortunately, Ms. Weston did not have health insurance. She called a company named “Ask Gary”, which advertised it’s services with a 1-800 phone number. Someone at that number told Ms. Weston that they would find someone who could treat her.
She ended up with an appointment at a place called “Physician’s Group”. Here, things started to get strange. She says that they did treat her for pain in her neck and back. However, she also received treatments that she didn’t actually want. She only wanted a massage and chiropractic adjustments. The health care practitioners who were treating her, however, insisted that they needed to do five or six other treatments as well as the ones that she initially came in for.
Typically, when someone has health insurance coverage, the person is not told a specific dollar amount that they would owe to the doctor, or to their insurance company, after they receive care. A whole process is involved, and a person might not end up discovering how much they have to pay until weeks or months afterwards.
Ms. Weston was told that “insurance would take care of everything”. This turned out to be less than factual. One day, she says that she arrived for her treatment, and was told that she did not have permission to see the doctor. The reason she was given was that her bill was too high. She learned that her bill was close to $20,000, after being assured by Ask Gary that “insurance would take care of everything”.
Later, she discovered that the Physician’s Group medical office, and the 1-800-Ask Gary company, were owned by the same group. Ms. Weston feels that she has been “duped”, and has said that the attorney makes money, the doctor makes money, and the client ends up losing out.
Physician’s Group, of course, has released a statement that blames the cost of the medical care that they provide on the car insurance companies. They insist that they have never been under investigation by the Florida Department of Insurance, or the FBI, and feel that everything that has been said against them is false.
Not long ago, another health provider with a 1-800 number, (1-800-get thin), was sued by the family members of women who died after having surgery through that facility. In general, if the insurance, or the physician, is advertising services with a 1-800 phone number, it is a good idea to select a different company to work with, instead.
Image by Tracy O on Flickr