NU Online News Service, Aug. 28, 2003, 5:38 p.m. EDT – Phony health plans have bilked 100,000 U.S. consumers since 2001 and left the victims with $85 million in unpaid medical bills, or about $8,500 in bills per victim, according to authors of a report released by The Commonwealth Fund, New York.
The authors, who are affiliated with the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University, report that some of the organizers of the phony plans are pretending to be exempt from state regulation.
Some organizers are marketing their plans as phony union plans, employee leasing firms, association health plans or discount health plans, the authors write.