Reported by Jeremy Finley
NASHVILLE, Tenn.Nearly two years after the Channel 4 I-Team exposed a company for misleading the sick and uninsured, the federal government Wednesday announced a sweeping crackdown on United Benefits of America.
UBA was named in the New York news conference with the Federal Trade Commission as one of three companies nationwide that have been using deceptive practices targeting the unemployed and the uninsured.
The FTC calls its investigation Operation Health Care Hustle and said UBA is a prime example of the companies scamming people in desperate need of insurance.
Since January 2009, the I-Team has been investigating UBA using a hidden camera to expose the practices inside the company. Consumers and former employees have said the company was deceiving customers, telling them they were buying major health care insurance when they were actually buying discount cards that barely covered their expenses.
The director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection announced Wednesday they're suing UBA and two other companies to try to shut them down.
The FTC and the Tennessee attorney general have sued UBA for violating Tennessee's Consumer Protection Act. A federal judge froze their assets, and the FTC shut down the company last week with the help of state troopers and Metro police.
The news conference featured a customer of UBA who repeated what other customers have told the I-Team: that she desperately needed health insurance and was told by the company she would get it, but was deceived.
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