For months, NBC 5 Responds has been investigating how scammers are using your medical information to con insurance companies into paying out big bucks in a scam that has hit people in Illinois.
It’s the kind of email that most people will never open. An explanation of benefits, or EOB, is not a bill but a letter from your insurance company that summarizes the cost of the health care services you received. And it was here, late last year, that Leo Danielides of Oak Brook noticed something looked amiss.
It was a LabCorp invoice from a place called Aman Labscorp. And I never heard of it, Danielides said. I think it’s called Labscorp versus Labcorp.
Danielides soon received several EOBs claiming that his insurance had paid Aman labscorp for two Covid 19 tests that Danielides says he never did. His doctor’s office confirms to NBC 5 Answer: He does not use Aman Labscorp.
I started to get a little angry, Danielides said.
Although Danielides never personally received a bill from the company and could have ignored the EOB, he said he teaches his children to raise their hand when they see something wrong.
That’s when Danielides wrote to NBC 5 Respons. We searched the name Aman Labscorp online and found almost a dozen identical complaints to Danielides about the company, all referring evidence fraud charges, people say they’ve never done it.
NBC 5 Responds then contacted the company’s registered agent and president, the former of whom claimed he had no idea what the complaints were about.
Muzamil Syed, the company’s president, told NBC Chicago that he was not at liberty to discuss the complaints and would not answer further questions.
Next, we hit the road to locate this lab.
NBC 5 Responds tried to visit “Aman Labscorp” at the address they provided in the National Healthcare Providers database, but no business is there.
We spoke with the owner of the Hickory Hills Strip Mall address that Aman Labscorp listed online.
The owner told NBC Chicago that they were in talks to bring a lab here several years ago, but that deal never materialized.
The other listed labs address led us to an office building in Schaumburg, although there is no physical lab or office for “Aman Labscorp” at that location either.
Ultimately, the location serves as a virtual office address, only receiving mail for the business in exchange for small monthly payments.
So how does this scam affect the consumer and is it a victimless crime? One expert told NBC Chicago that the costs will ultimately fall on the consumer.
Well, if your insurance company is billed for things you don’t receive, that will affect your costs over time. They’re going to increase their costs, said Todd Kossow of the Federal Trade Commission.
Kossow explains that it’s likely an example of healthcare fraud called “phantom billing.” where someone is billed a service or supplies they never received.
Kossow said it was rampant during the pandemic, largely targeting Medicare patients.
But Kossow said scammers began targeting private insurers when the COVID-19 public health emergency was officially declared over in May 2023.
What we saw after that point was that more private insurers were being billed, that private insurers that have decided to continue to cover home test kits are being billed again for tests that were not ordered or tests that were never received , Kossow said.
According to BlueCross BlueShield, Danielides’ insurance company, that’s exactly what’s happening here.
The insurance company said Aman Labscorp’s bills are “part of a nationwide COVID-19 test fraud scheme” in a statement. The statement added that they have been dealing with this type of fraud for over a year along with “every other insurer in the country”.
In all, Danielides said the lab has tried to bill his insurance at least nine times and counting. He said his insurance company eventually stopped paying those claims.
I would just say a lesson learned for consumers is to look at them, at your bills, look at your explanation of benefits, look at what’s going on, Danielides said.
As for how to watch for this type of fraud, the FBI advises everyone to protect your health insurance information by treating it like a credit card and not giving it to others to use.
Authorities also advise people to check their EOB regularly to make sure the dates, locations and services billed match what you actually received.
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