MISSOURI-based Medical Cost Sharing Ministry, headed by CE0 Craig Reynolds, inset, targeted Christians wanting an alternative to ObamaCare.
Medical Cost Sharing Inc, according to the FBI, attempted to lower payouts, failed to negotiate prices down with healthcare providers and, in some cases, entirely avoided covering members’ medical costs by using “specious” excuses.
Among those who submitted formal complaints against the company was Texas pastor Jeff Gore, who paid some $4,000 in membership fees into the fund but never received compensation for care.
Meanwhile Forbes reported that two pregnant women, a heart attack sufferer and a woman who needed airlifting to a hospital after a stroke were amongst hundreds victims of an alleged $4 million fraud perpetrated by the ministry.
According to FBI Reynolds and and cohort James McGinnis pocketed $4 million of $7.5 million gained from selling memberships to gullible fools whose judgment was clouded by the fact that MCS presented itself as being “biblically based”.
A MCS screenshot, featuring McGinnis, was taken before the company’s website was shut down by a federal judge.
People whose critical faculties remain unimpaired by religion would immediately know that the term “biblically based” is a euphemism for SCAM!
The probe led to the closure of MCS’s website, but according to this company profile the non-profit states:
We are NOT an insurance company but work very similar to one in that we help families, individuals and businesses pay for their health care costs …
We are able to offer health care plans that usually save people 40% to 60% over traditional heath insurance and ObamaCare programs. Our Christian health insurance alternative is open to all Christians in the United States.
The FBI probe launched this week revealed that only $250,000 (3.2%) was paid out to claimants.
Membership fees were used, among other things, to pay for a holiday to Mexico, various vehicles and a $300 gift to a Donald Trump political action committee.
Members of MCS had been promised their medical bills would be covered in return for a monthly contribution. Those membership fees were to be “shared” with a network of “like-minded” Christians.
But members claimed they were denied coverage for reasons they couldn’t grasp and left with thousands in unpaid medical bills.
Amongst the victims, the FBI said, were two pregnant women who expected the ministry to cover their birth costs, after MCS’s promotional material said, “all preexisting conditions, including maternity, are covered from day one.”
But the FBI said that after the women gave birth, they each began receiving bills for nearly $15,000. One was told that she wouldn’t be covered and her membership was going to be canceled, as MCS accused her of lying on her application about previous medical conditions—namely, being pregnant.
Three years after the birth of her child, she still owes $9,000. The other paid nearly $12,000 directly to medical providers, on top of the $4,400 in membership fees she paid MCS.
Another member suffered a stroke and was flown to hospital, with her bills totaling $125,000, the FBI said. After paying nearly $11,000 in membership dues, she forwarded the bills to MCS for processing, only to be told that nothing would be covered.
No criminal charges have been filed, though an injunction against MCS has been issued.
Companies like MCS are run by ‘bottom-feeders’
While such nonprofits claim to offer legitimate insurance alternatives, there’s no real oversight of their operations, said JoAnn Volk, research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
Healthcare sharing ministries claim an exemption from federal and state insurance laws, so there’s no guarantee that the organization maintains funds sufficient to pay claims and certainly no guarantee that they will, even if the funds are there.
There are no solvency requirements, no requirement to pay members in a timely way—no requirement to pay at all. It really is just a matter of faith that claims will be paid, though the marketing typically suggests otherwise.
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