Breg Inc. BREG Over-priced products without adequate disclosure Toledo OH
Wrist brace/thumb stabilizer provided at UCHealth Urgent Care facilitity dispensed without any discussion about pricing, just a disclosure statement that any amount not covered by insurance will be the responsibility of the patient.
Well, BREG, the provider of the device, billed my insurance, UMR, $300 for this brace where a comparable device produced by ACE is available at Walmart for $17.82. My insurance, UMR, apparently issued a $146.63 credit toward my deductible, but paid nothing. That leaves me with a BREG bill of $153.37 for this $20 device.
The BREG customer support person at the contact number has no authority to settle the bill for less and said there was no escalation procedure available and that I should contact my insurance company, UMR. I'm waiting for UMR's response.
I'm not paying $153.37 for this device supplied under dubious circumstances and am disappointed in the lack of disclosure by UCHealth about estimated cost when there was an affordable alternative easily available elsewhere/anywhere.
BREG has the right to price there products as they see fit, however, over-billing the medical system and patients is unethical behavior. Patients are willing to pay a fair price for products, and even a small premium for convenience. Billing approximately 7x the going rate for a product is unethical. The method BREG uses to coerce payment is unethical and fradulent.