Devoted to the Insurance industry and all thing related

Hi, Andrew. There's another point I'd like to add. The seniors. My mom is 78 and gets the bums deal almost every time she goes to the pharmacy.

Carolyn,

The cost of drugs these days is ridiculous and definitely needs to be addressed. While there are plenty of illegal insurance scams it does at times seem legal insurance scams are plentiful as well. I haven't posted too much on that topic but it's worth mentioning in future posts.

A car went through a red light at an intersecion and hit me, It was a small tap, but he insisted that the police be called, The sheriff came and could not determine who was at fault although the preponderence of evidence showed the other driver hit me. The damage to my pocket book was the $500 deductible but that was not the end of it. He sued me for aggravating damages. Apparently he has been in this kind of accident at least twice before he admitted. He also claimed he was hurt by this small bump, alhough his own doctor said he could see no change in his condition.
My insurance company, against my wishes settled for $10,000 as " a business decision", although as I said, the evidence would have shown him to be at fault. I think this guy makes a living doing this and I begged USAA to go to trial, which they would not do because :"it could have cost more to try the case than settle it!" I am outraged

The insurance industry is unfortunately trapped by the system. And the Personal Injury lawyers know it. It costs more to defend the lawsuit than it does to pay it. And they (unless they're a mutual company) have to answer to stockholders when it comes to the bottom line. The industry walked into this trap many, many years ago by turning a blind eye to the fraud. Now its rampant and there are too few fraud investigators to take on all the cases. If your state has a fraud bureau and you think this guy is a repeat offender, go to www.fightfraudamerica.com to report your concerns either to the fraud bureau or the state insurance commissioner. The links are on the "REPORT" page.

Joseph,

That sounds like a very frustrating experience that unfortunately has happened to many other people. I can't imagine what the other driver said after hitting your car. He must have thought he could get away with it if he was bold enough to demand that the police get involved.

Another oddity to me was that the police officer couldn't determine who was at fault. Was that because there were no other witnesses or was the other driver saying it wasn't his fault?

It could be possible that his doctor was in on the scam as well. A not uncommon business scam relationship. I've read numerous articles about teams of people running auto accident scams and bilking insurers out of hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars over multiple years.

This may not be the case for your specific situation but its worth mentioning to your state fraud bureau or your state insurance department.

Diana,

I agree that there are not enough fraud agents fighting this rampant crime against insurers and many insureds. Thanks for the link to the fraud website, hopefully some people will use it in their individual cases.

RightHealth Providers is a fraudulent medical company that needs to be investigated & put out of business. They get people's names, such as myself, who have applied for medical insurance with other companies, obtain personal information about you, call on the phone, lead you to believe that they are the insurance company you've applied with & say that they are verifying information on your application. Then they ask for your credit card #, in order to withdraw funds from your account for future monthly premiums. I checked RightHealth out with some health regulatory agency (I don't remember the name of the agency) 2 or 3 years ago & was told that RightHealth is known not to make their medical payments to providers.
RightHealth has scammed me twice. The first time was 2 or 3 years ago when I had applied on-line for medical insurance with legitimate companies (Blue Cross & Alliance). The second time was Friday night 6/22/07---I just applied for new medical insurance with Mega Alliance a couple of weeks ago (not on-line). Both times RightHealth Providers has contacted me by phone (shortly after I applied for insurance with these other companies) saying that I had applied for medical insurance w/their company (actually telling me this last time, that they were Mega Alliance, when I asked them) & that they were verifying information on my application. Then they ask for my credit card #---which I was stupid enough to give them both times. Both times I immediately realized that I had been scammed & upon calling them back was informed that my application had already been processed & that they could not stop the deduction from my bank account from going through. They initially told me that $129.90 would be withdrawn monthly, yet $229.90 was withdrawn from my account by Monday morning, 6/25. I had to close my account & reopen another one with a different account #.
RightHealth agents told me that they are located in Irving, TX, yet every person I have spoken with, associated with RightHealth, has had an east Indian accent. Their website, http://www.righthealthplan.com/index.asp, has their address listed as 4929 Royal Lane, Irving, TX 75063. When I called them back at a later date & asked where they're located, I was told that they're in New Jersey. They refused to give me their mailing address---told me that their supervisor was the only one allowed to give out that information, put me on hold & never picked up again. I had to call back 3 times before someone was finally willing to give me their mailing address. The man kept asking me why I wanted it & wouldn't tell me what it was until I got a little angry. I was given the mailing address of 208 Look Out Place, Hot Springs, NJ 71913.
They hung up on me 4 times Friday night, when I called them back to say that I did not want the policy or $ deducted from my account. The first time I called back & told a lady what had happened & that I didn't want the deduction taken from my bank account, she said that my information had already been taken out of their computer & that the deduction would not be made on my account, yet she hadn't even asked me for my name---then she put me on hold & eventually disconnected. I called back & the same woman I had spoken with before immediately hung up on me. I called back again & was referred to a man who told me that Mega had denied my application & had referred it to their company (I called my Mega insurance agent & he confirmed that this was not true). He then put me on hold & eventually disconnected. I called back the fourth time & a man said that they would stop the $129.90 deduction & cancel the medical policy. Yet by 9:00 a.m. the following business day, RightHealth had deducted $229.90 from my account.
On Wednesday, 6/27 I called RightHealth to complain. Once again I was put on hold for a long period of time & I hung up. A man (sounded like the same RightHealth agent, with an east Indian accent, who I had just spoken with) immediately called me back, claiming to be with a different agency, not associated with RightHealth, who regulated insurance companies. He said that a RightHealth trainee had not been sufficiently supervised, that 5 people had lost their jobs over this incident & that RightHealth had been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. He assured me 3 different times that it wasn't necessary for me to take the time to report RightHealth to other regulatory agencies---that whenever his agency was alerted to possible fraud, they automatically contacted 15 other regulatory agencies in the country. When asked, he said that he was located in Baltimore.

RightHealth's contact phone #'s are:
1-800-987-3416 (sales) contact this # first---this is the guilty party
1-800-708-0318 (billing) I think this billing agency only does the billing for RightHealth & other companies

My name is Kathy Campbell
P.O.Box 112
Ouray, CO 81427
970 325-4681

Following is an email which they sent to me. The return email address is not legitimate & I was not able to reply.

Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:30:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Kathy Campbell" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject: Re: RightHealth Plan Member Application
To: applications@RightHealthPlan.com

--- applications@RightHealthPlan.com wrote:

---------------------------------
Congratulations

Dear Kathy J. Campbell,

Thank you for joining RightHealth, a program provided
through America’s Health Care Consumer Association
(AHCCA).
Your membership will be effective on the date you have
selected. You will receive a Member Guide in the mail
shortly. This Member Guide provides details in an
easy-to-read format on all of your member services and
how to utilize them. Your Member Guide also includes
your ID cards, which provide access to your member
services. This e-mail also contains a PDF of your ID
cards to allow you to use your discount Services
immediately.
You also may visit our website to view the details of
your plan: www.righthealthplan.com.

As a reminder, your RightHealth plan features many
valuable services and benefits for you, including:

Prescription, Dental and Vision Discounts
Access to CallMD and 24 Hour Nurseline - you can
reach a doctor or nurse 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
from the convenience of your home
Automatic Enrollment in the following insured
features:
Accident Medical Expense Benefit
Accident Disability benefit
Accidental Death & Dismemberment benefit

Thank you again for joining. We hope you will use your
plan to save money on many products and services, and
we look forward to assisting you. If you have any
questions, please call us at 800-708-0318 (Customer
Service hours are Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Central time; Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central time).

Sincerely,

RightHealth Member Services

RightHealth is for members of America’s Health Care
Consumer Association (AHCCA), a national membership
organization committed to helping Americans save
money. Certain benefits and services may not be
available in all states. Exclusions and limitations
may apply. RightHealth representatives receive
compensation for promoting this benefit package and
for selling memberships in the association.

____________________________________________________________________________________
Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/

I was just about scam by RightHealth too but got on the computer and found this comment by Kathy Cambell and stop payment and cancel my cards before it was to late you can't get on the internet for health insurance for the scams out there THANK YOU KATHY

I was wondering if it is legal for a disaster restoration company to get a bid in one amount from a subcontractor (ie: plumber) to do work on an insurance claim and then go out and submit a bill to an insurance company for 20% higher than the original bid price?

Great site. Fraud is unfortunately considered a part of doing business. As long as there is money involved, people will take advantage of the situation. Insurance companies unfortunately don't have enough resources to solve the problem. Many time it's cheaper to just pay the claim than to investigate it.

While you referenced some rather large scams, I had a client who scammed my insurer and got away with it (a $30,000+ motorcycle claim). They had a retired FBI guy do his best but they paid out in the end. Still, it was legal robbery, a very clever claim. They tried to insure a $50k boat too but fortunately we declined to insure it.