An Appleton based businessman must pay more than $8.7 million in restitution after the FTC says the man's company ran a multi-state medical insurance scheme.
The FTC judgment against Partners in Health care and Gary L. Kieper the conclusion of a case that started in September 2011.
The Better Business Bureau started an investigation after receiving complaints from consumers from across the country. Many of the complaints said the company mislead consumers who believed they were purchasing medical insurance, but had actually been sold a "medical discount card" that was practically worthless.
The BBB received numerous complaints between 2011 and 2014 from consumers in 32 states. Complaints to the BBB included product misrepresentation, delay in receiving refunds, promised and full refunds not received, dissatisfaction with the product, difficulty in reaching the company, product not received in a specific time frame, non-information regarding the cancellation policy, and inability to cancel.
Many of the people who filed complaints were seniors and Spanish-speaking consumers.
Kieper responded to almost all of the complaints filed with the BBB saying the consumer did not purchase the policy from PIHC and instead enrolled through an out of state marketing company. He also said that consumers did not request a refund in the allotted time. Often, Kieper attempted to refer the BBB to the out of state sellers of his program. The BBB concluded that PIHC continually failed to correct or eliminate the underlying cause of complaints.
The BBB referred the case to the FTC in October, 2013. In September 2014, the FTC shut down and sued PIHC and the final judgment against PIHC was granted on June 27, 2016.
