Mark and Stephanie Sojka, of Bolingbrook, Ill., received health scanning… (Nathan Weber/Pro Publica)
June 23, 2011|By Marshall Allen, ProPublica
In scores of consumer complaints, Heart Check America clients have accused the company of using pressure sales tactics inappropriate for a health care firm as it markets long-term medical imaging contracts costing thousands of dollars.
The Tinley Park-based company says scans from its Electron Beam Tomography machines can detect dangerous heart conditions and other health problems. But doctors say many people receiving the pitches most likely do not need the scans — they are under 40 and don't smoke, aren't overweight and have no family history or symptoms of heart disease.
Even for patients at risk of heart disease, some experts say, there is no medical evidence that the benefits of the tests outweigh potential dangers.
Regulators in Nevada and Colorado have cited one Heart Check America location and shuttered another, saying they lacked adequate medical supervision and had not taken proper precautions to avoid exposing patients to excessive radiation.
Now the company is under fire in Illinois, where its radio commercials have regularly pitched its imaging scans as a way to detect serious heart problems.
On Thursday, the Illinois attorney general's office filed a lawsuit accusing the owner and manager of Heart Check America of pressuring patients into purchasing pricey body scans that many did not need. Illinois officials say Sheila Haddad, the owner of the company, and her son, David, the manager, used "unfair and deceptive business practices" to manipulate consumers, possibly numbering in the thousands, into 10-year screening contracts costing up to $7,000, plus additional annual dues.
The complaint, filed in state court in Chicago, alleges a list of problems with Heart Check America's tactics:
•Multiple scans may not be medically appropriate, and sales were based on a false premise that early detection of disease always leads to better outcomes.
•The people selling the scans were not medically trained, and no medical provider evaluated patients before they received the scans.
•Consumers were not informed of risks, including radiation exposure, false-positive tests and a false sense of security from false-negative tests.
•Some test results were inaccurate.
Heart Check America officials did not respond to calls and emails asking for comment on the lawsuit. In an earlier interview, David Haddad acknowledged that Heart Check America has made missteps but blamed most of the recent patient complaints on a temporary backlog caused when the company switched to a new radiology group to read its scans.
He characterized any regulatory violations as minor and said the company was taking steps to bring all of its centers into compliance with government standards.
"People come back and say, 'Thank you, my wife will be (alive) because we found this,'" Haddad said. "I made my mom and sister go. People hug and kiss us goodbye in these clinics."
Customers in Illinois have described Heart Check America's sales tactics as misleading. "They are manipulating your health, your life and your future," said Elizabeth Lucki, of Niles, who signed a Heart Check America contract after a two-hour pitch, then spent two months fighting to cancel the deal, forfeiting the $1,990 she paid upfront. "This was like brainwashing."
Judy Blazek, a consumer named in the lawsuit and a former Heart Check America employee, paid the company $3,000 but never received her scan results, according to the suit. Blazek sought a refund but could not reach company officials, who had closed the company's sites in Tinley Park and Arlington Heights.
The complaint says another consumer, Kathleen Collins-Kuba, received a free heart scan and purchased a full-body scan for $600 on March 6. Later, her doctor told her the results had no medical relevance, and a follow-up CT scan performed at her physician's request indicated that Heart Check America's body scan was inaccurate. The hospital scan showed a kidney stone on one side of her body, but the Heart Check America scan showed it was on the other side, the complaint says.
Since June 2010, the Illinois attorney general's office has received 25 complaints against Heart Check America, according to the complaint.
Haddad has run into similar difficulties before. In 2007, Indiana's attorney general filed a lawsuit against companies run by Haddad and his wife, alleging they had deceived customers to get them to buy time shares, vacation packages and travel club memberships.
Heart Check America was founded in 1992 by California entrepreneur Bruce Friedman and another investor. Friedman had no background in health care, but he saw a business opportunity.