Complaint Review: MedPlan Careington International corporation - Albany New York

CAREINGTON International Corporation is a privately owned reduced fee-for-service healthcare provider headquartered in Frisco, Texas. In June of 2001 a man by the name of Christian Quilliam approached our company with a desire to lease our various healthcare networks and provide access to his members through a program he called MedPlan based out of Canada. In April 2002 Mr. Quilliam introduced another discount healthcare product that was known as Global Discount Healthcare. CAREINGTON International has many such partnership with other private lable companies and this is not an unusual scenario in the reduce fee healthcare industry. Typically, we lease our network of providers to private label companies for a small access fee per member, per month. In some cases we offer access to the networks for a flat fee per month. That was our arrangement with MedPlan. Unfortunately, what did turn our to be unusual is the fact that MedPlan and Global Discount Healthcare closed their doors in November 2002 and left no way for their members or for CAREINGTON International to contact them. By the time they "went out of business" numerous members through their companies had requested cancellation of their membership and a refund of fees. Most of their members contacted our company directly as our phone number was included on their fulfillment materials. Our representatives referred them back to their respective groups (Either MedPlan or Global)in order to cancel and obtain a refund. All financial transactions occurred at MedPlan and/or Global; CAREINGTON International had no personal financial information on MedPlan or Global members and therefore we did not process payments on their members' behalf. When we realized that there was a problem with MedPlan/Global it was unfortunately too late. Not only did those companies cause a great deal of heartache for their members, they also left CAREINGTON holding the bag. Since CAREINGTON International did not process any payments for the MedPlan and Global members we were not able to refund any money back to those members. However, despite the fact that MedPlan/Global went out of business owing CAREINGTON money we allowed the MedPlan and Global members to keep their memberships intact for the full term of the membership they had purchased through MedPlan or Global. Additionally, CAREINGTON International Corporation contacted the proper authorities and filed a formal complaint against MedPlan and Global on behalf of their members. When MedPlan and Global members telephoned our Call Center with a complaint concerning MedPlan or Global we gave them the information they would need to file their own complaint with the regulatory agencies in Canada that govern the industry there. It is very unfortunate that consumers fell prey to MedPlan and Global; CAREINGTON International has complete sympathy for those people. The members through MedPlan and Global paid either $349.00 or $399.00 per annual membership. This money was paid directly to MedPlan and/or Global. Over the total period of eighteen months that MedPlan and/or Global were in business they sold over 48,000 memberships. CAREINGTON was paid a small monthly access fee for those members. In addition, many of the healtcare networks provided are owned by other companies that CAREINGTON partners with; CAREINGTON only owns the dental network. Therefore, CAREINGTON had to pay access fees to each of the vendor partners that we leased from in order to provide continual access to those networks for the MedPlan and Global members. We hope that through this rebuttal you can clearly see that CAREINGTON International Corporation and MedPlan are not one in the same. CAREINGTON International has been in business in Texas since 1979 and we are leaders in the discount healthcare industry. MedPlan was a company out of Canada that to our knowledge was in business for about 18 months. I know that you state that complaints will not be removed from your site, however, we respectfully request that the complaint against MedPlan be listed as such, as CAREINGTON International Corporation was in innocent party that also got burned by MedPlan and CAREINGTON did everything short of refunding money we did not have in an attempt to assist the MedPlan members. Sincerely, Sue Pentecost Sunstrum Director of Member Services CAREINGTON International Corporation