Comments on: Caught on Tape: Phony Falls that Cost You Money
Add a Comment
- Hmm, I'm finding this hard to believe.
If this is really a $30 Billion a year "industry", then why don't ALL grocery stores have surveilance cameras? Why aren't insurers refusing policies for any store that doesn't have them? Camera systems are dirt cheap now, and have been for years.
Either the "slip and fall" business is a small portion of the overall fraud, or the $30 Billion claim is hugely inflated. I'm skeptical because we've heard similar scary stories about medical malpractice...but in all states with malpractice "tort reform" and pay-out caps, the cost of healthcare hasn't decreased one iota, it's only gotten more expensive. It's not to say that there isn't malpractice fraudsters out there, it's just that I find the insurance industry to be just as fraudulent in their claims as these slip and fall con artists. - Reply to this comment
- Some will never have anything to do with money that is not honest. Others will run toward dishonest money--or try to trip their way to it.
And then there are those who feel no scruple about getting paid for the least amount of work they can get away with.
A healthy society thrives on honest money, as the body thrives on wholesome blood.
Candadai Tirumalai - Reply to this comment
- Don't forget the insurance compnaies make lots of money in the process. The more claims the more bean counters they employ
- Reply to this comment
- If the injury does exist after a fake or staged fall and cannot be proven to be rigged or not . Then the money paid out goes first to the health care provider and sorry victim the limits by law are the cost of medical only.
- Reply to this comment
- It's the American Way! If you can't win the lottery, find somebody to sue.
- Reply to this comment
- About a year ago I was at a Costco and I wasn't looking what I was doing (I was looking away while talking to a friend) and I grabbed for the handle of a freezer door to open it. The door was broken and came loose from the frame and down on my head; even though it was a heavy glass door, fortunately I was not injured at all.
Was Costco technically at fault? Yes, because it had not taped up the door so I couldn't open it, and there was no sign posted; however, if I had been looking directly at the door before opening it, I would have noticed it didn't look fully functional (had some tape here and there and a piece of cardboard blocking the bottom of the sections which were clues not to open it).
If I had gotten injured, would I have sued Costco? I doubt it, but for two reasons: 1) it was mostly my ******* mistake for not looking while I opened a freezer door and 2) I have insurance and don't need the money.
But I can see how even legitimate claims could cost the industry billions, and there's all the fraud as well ... - Reply to this comment
- These morons dont know that cameras are watching them all the time?Look, if you want to "slip" on oil on the floor, you need to put little baggies of oil(like "The Great Escape") under your jeans, and have little strings tied to them, as you walk across the floor you pull on the strings and sneakily release the oil. No camera will catch that. Whoops, I just taught half the welfare bums in America how to do it. Silly me.
- Reply to this comment
- It's a good thing for insurance companies to do business within businesses...
The cost of doing business is an accounting term for "expenses, or a liability for services readily available to be performed." According to a 2008 US Census Bureau statistic, 20.6 million businesses are sole proprietors and 2.5 million are partnerships (some limited liability to their investment and some general liability) mostly all with ultimately unlimited liability. With that in mind, insurance companies can, and will benefit for offering their services for cash premiums with no certainty of an accident, but absolute uncertainty that a business would incur a personal injury claim.
On the other hand, without such a thing as insurance, the owners of businesses are responsible for the monetary damages with their earnings at risk stemming from a personal injury claim by, or on his, or her plant and equipment.
Its a good thing for a business to do business within businesses, because it would be a greater loss without it.
Good story, of the alarming statistic from the National Insurance Crime Bureau of Chicago about the 39 year old woman, the middle aged man, and the two elderly woman -some alone and some with accomplices- from Phoenix, South Carolina, and Florida that were convicted for defrauding insurance companies by claiming phony accidents.
I'm an aspiring journalist - Reply to this comment
- Specifically what value added does the insurance company offer for its 40% cut of health care services?
Imagine that - if we went to a fee system that administered and paid health care claims instead of tacking on marketing costs and profits and shareholder dividends and $20 million for the CEOs we could reduce total health care costs to employers and subscribers by 30%!!! Just because we have health insurance companies doesn't mean that we can't make them as outmoded as US made consumer products if it is to the betterment of the nation. Some insurers are already outsourcing work to China and India.
Let's slay the beast and create a national single payer plan in its place that rids itself of the deadwood of insurance profits. - Reply to this comment
- Also individuals who run into the back of cars and don't have insurance should be felonies with probation, thereafter for any other offense felony with prison time, fines, probation 10 years afterwards. If any more offenses, put these individuals in prison for life. They are moral and physician hazards to American citizen lives. Tired of parents not paying for their teens auto truck insurance, buying them "wheels", and not making them be responsible in driving responsibly. Parents should be charged with aggrevated offense by association and forced to pay for all costs of care for those afflicted. Tired of these lame Tea Party folks getting away with not paying for what they cause in harm to those who live within their communities. Lubbock, Texas an example -- high insurance since most drivers there don't pay for car home boat insurance but try to obtain monies on false claims spells FRAUD!
- Reply to this comment
