I did online research and bought health insurance recently. Well, today this company "Health Care Providers" of Ft Lauderdale, Florida, called me saying I had visited their website "goodhealthchoice.com" which according to NetworkSolutions.com's WHOIS utility belongs to a guy in Pennsylvania, NOT to "Health Care Providers" of Ft Lauderdale, FLorida.
I don't know where they REALLY got my name and address. They offered me a too-good-to-be-true "open enrollment", "no preexisting conditions" "unlimited" PPO medical plan they called "New Health Choice PPO" saying it was underwritten by Guarantee Trust Life Insurance company and was supposed to supplement my existing health insurance and pay 70/30 with no deductible.
About 10 minutes into the call, she revealed that it actually wasnt' insurance but not to worry, they had 130,000 doctors on their plan and even had a 3,000 ER Insurance - oops not insurance actually, okay and not for anything but accidents.
Then she said they go through a group called Karis for any bills over 1,000 - to get a grant for the bill or else negotiate payments on it. WAIT - medical plans do not need to "negotiate" your bill with the doctor AFTER the visit, or try to find you a grant to get your bill paid! Then she said "if the total amount we pay on your claims in the first year does not EXCEED the 1st year's premiums you paid, then the entire second year's premiums are FREE.
PLEASE! NO health care group or plan does this. They have to usually make more than they pay out to stay in business. Then of course she wanted to get my credit card or bank account information and my date of birth, etc, but couldn't give me even a website and couldnt' explain why I couldn't look them or their plan up online or why Guarantee Trust Life Insurance's website made absolutely no mention of them or their little plan.
I made her give me the company's phone number and address, and her manager, who must have been standing over her, took the call away and got pushy with me, trying to hard-sell me into giving him my credit card information. He was very rude and insulting about it. He told me their web address was "proprietary" and "for members only".
I said I would check his company out with our state Insurance Commissioner and call him back if they checked out as real, and then he said the insurance plan would not still be available when I called back, it was 'now or never' kind of thing. What a lying sack of crap!
Our state insurance commissioner did of course confirm that they've never heard of this company, and that these kinds of scams often tell you they have thousands of doctors on their network, but when you get to the doctors office, the doctor has never even heard of them and you get no coverage whatsoever. (Meanwhile, they are taking money out of your bank account or off your credit card, and you go through hell trying to get it back.)
Please, just because someone has your name and number, it means nothing. They have all sorts of ways to get that sort of stuff. Don't give your credit card or bank statement information to someone who just calls you up. Don't give them your birthdate either, they will use that to steal you blind. If they get pushy, tell them to GFT.
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