Posted On: March 14, 2008, 3:56 pm CDT

Posted By: Eve Arnold

I was an Ameriplan customer a couple of years ago. I'm a California resident and have been for the past 11 years. As a part-time employee I was unable to have health coverage through my employer, therefore, I looked for an alternative. I found Ameriplan and signed up for their "Discount card". When it came time to use the card for my money's worth, non of the "listed" providers with Ameriplan even knew they were listed as an Ameriplan provider. To make sure it wasn't a one time fluke, I started calling different types of providers: (dental, chiropractors, vision, health), not ONE validated Ameriplan's discount card and not ONE even knew they were being listed as an Ameriplan provider. When I gave this information to the providers they stated they were going to contact Ameriplan and file a legal complaint. Now, I'm not a Montana resident, but I got scammed the same way. I paid monthly fees that were never reimbursed AND was never able to receive a single discount with their card because non of the providers validated it. In fact, they offered lower discounts as a "cash patient" themselves than what Ameriplan was claiming to save the consumer. Now if this company has been in business for so long and claim to have thousand of satisfied costumers, one of two things could account for that statistic. First, the ratio of satisfied costumers may be in direct link to the very far few and in between providers that may actually validate their discount card and that have actual knowledge that they are being listed as an Ameriplan provider. The second option is the number of satisfied costumers may be revolving NEW costumers who happen to get a ONE time discount here and there, but once they actually experience the full scale of unsupported claims, they cancel their membership (as I did) to leave room for the next "victim".