Breg,Inc Extortion, Heath Care Hustle, Exagerated Pricing, double billing Dallas Nationwide

In July of 2015 I cut my finger while working with a box knife, a local urgent care facility stitched up my finger and sent me home. In June of 2016 I get a bill for $50 dollars from Breg, Inc. The bill is for a dozen baseball finger splines that I had been treated with the previous summer. I looked the device up on line, it goes for $6 to $14 individually and is available from many retailers, both online and box stores. I didn't remember the device from the previous year, but was quite certain I didn't come home with 12 of them. 

I contacted the urgent care facility to see if they had any idea what the bill would be referring too. They said the devices were replaced by the dozen, so all descriptors are listed as sets, but the value represents a single unit. However, they checked their records and did not show that I was given one, though they assured me I would not have received a bill if I had not received the device.

I called Breg to inquire why I was being billed for a dozen of the finger splines. Calling them is a particular horror in and of itself, navigating the thick accents wouldn't be so bad if the people you were calling could actually talk to you and assist you, but they stick so closely to their script and have no empathy for the victims of the extortion they have been trained to perpetuate. The experience is dehumanizing at the least. Breg confirmed that the bill represents the single device and the descriptor is for restocking purposes and is just not changed for billing purposes. Naturally, Breg is refusing to alter the bill, refuses to negotiate a lesser price, and gave me the standard 30 days plus 30 to pay before it goes to collection.

Extortion may seem like a bold word, but that is exactly what is happening. The reason they took so long to bill me for the device is because my insurance had denied covering the alleged finger spline. Apparently, Breg has been inflating their prices to near double the insurance max value so that the insurance company and the injured person both have to pay a price that is quadruple the market value. My insurance got sick of them, denied the claim outright and stuck me with the whole bill, at more than 8 times market value.

There is supposed to be a form signed by the patient for the restocking of medical supplies like braces. I don’t remember the form, the urgent care facility does not have a copy of the form, but almost 12 months after the fact Breg says they have the form. This form says I agreed to pay whatever price they could dream up to charge me. There are no dollar amounts listed at time of treatment but they have now decided they want $50 for their $6 finger spline or else. I don’t think extortion is too powerful a word in this case. If you see Breg, beware, you will overpay, and your insurance will overplay, and the wholes system is made just a little bit worse for everybody, except the investors at Breg, Inc.