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STATE FARM – JUST HOW MUCH FRAUD DO THE SEALED COURT RECORDS REVEAL ?
| Dateline- Eugene Oregon. 1994
and 1999. Debbie Foltz had a son injured in a motor vehicle accident. She alleged her claim submitted to State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, was sent to an "independent outside firm for review". Ms. Foltz alleges that State Farm did this knowing full well that the report from the firm would be that a bogus analysis of the medical bills would be made that would say that the claim should be denied or reduced. Well, as part of the final settlement of the case, the court records were to be sealed such that other persons, who would have interest into the facts of this case, would be denied access. Of course, this stipulation came from the State Farm side of the case. Well, now three consumer groups are in federal court trying to get the records open to scrutiny. The Washington based Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation are one of the parties seeking that Judge Michael Hogan, the judge in the original case, allow the case to be unsealed. The above material is reported in the Washington Post article by Edward Walsh, but I am hearing reports from Florida and around the country of this tactic. The issue is this. You have people claiming medical expenses. You know that the claim is what we might call a "righteous" claim, i.e. that it is meritorious and under the policy, the medical expenses have to be paid. But, as an insurance company without, apparently, much in the way of ethics or scruples, you decide that you don’t want to pay the medical expenses. How do you get out of your legal obligation to pay ? |
The answer is that you find a
doctor, group of doctors, or "paper review" (utilization review) outside firm
that will examine the medical records (or at least claim that they are reviewing the
records) and also, you have an understanding with the firm, that they are going to return
a report denying the need for the care in any report that you send them, or at least, find
that the medical bills are far too high . After the insurance company sends the
"independent" firm the medical reports and records for review, the firm sends
back their "independent" review that says, surprisingly enough, that the
treatments and charges were not medically necessary, that the charges were not "usual
and customary" or other boilerplate which the insurance company can then use as paper
documentation for denying the claim or cutting the medical bills. This is NOT rocket
science folks. If you examine the pattern of State Farm Insurance as described in the proceedings of court case after court case over the past three decades, you will find out that this company has been accused of engaging in unethical, and yes CRIMINAL behavior which has been so prevalent, that it makes one wonder if it is not part of its standard operating procedure. If you think this is strong language, it is not anything near the blistering rebuke aimed at State Farm from Idaho District Judge Duff McKee. Speaking about State Farm, he wrote "… The practice of manufacturing evidence to use in defeating a claim being made by the insurance company’s own insured is reprehensible. ".
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My question is this. It is
fact that State Farm, on an ongoing basis, is being hit with multi-million dollar punitive
judgments. They have also been alleged to have carried on an ongoing pattern of unethical and criminal behavior. My question is simple. WHY IS THIS COMPANY BEING ALLOWED TO CONTINUE THE VICTIMIZATION OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? If you know the reason, please e-mail me. If you want to read more about all of this, please CLICK HERE. Thank you for your time and attention. |
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