How to spot and avoid healthcare scams, medical frauds, and quackery, from the local physician to the major healthcare providers and drug manufacturers Phony cancer treatments, HMO incompetence and greed, useless diet creams, worthless "vitamin" pills, and life-endangering "cures" . . . don't get mad, get informed! A crusading, award-winning investigative reporter for television newsmagazines Extra, Hard Copy, and Inside Edition, Chuck Whitlock leads you into the underworld of MediScams. Here, medical chicanery, good intentions gone bad, and unrepentant greed combine to consume America's healthcare dollars by the billions. Are you in need? The MediScam artists are there with false promises of therapies, cures, and treatments. "Provocative, disturbing, and refreshingly not sensationalist, this book offers a hard look inside the world of health care and offers specific tips that readers can use to safeguard their health." -Publishers Weekly A shocking and unnerving work, MediScams blows the whistle on healthcare "professionals" hawking "scientifically proven" treatments that turn out to be fradulent. Whitlock reveals the dirty secrets of health maintenance organizations and pharmaceutical houses. His exposé of the mistreatment of patients and of Medicaid and Medicare fraud has shed light on the seedy underside of nursing home operations. Whitlock is relentless in his pursuit of those who abuse the public trust. And he isn't afraid of pointing out the serious malpractice that goes on even in the offices of "respectable" physicians. In MediScams, Whitlock gets in the face of: - supplement manufacturers who cite only selective testing labs and portions of legitimate research to back up their fraudulent claims - bogus plastic surgeons-particularly the enormous number who operate without licenses or medical degrees - the research charlatans who recklessly dispense compounds, powders, pills, and placebos - the carnies and hucksters who live off dental MediScams and nursing home rip-offs - fraudulent doctors-yours may be one of them MediScams will scare you, but more importantly, it will make you want to take action. It will show you how easily you may be taken in by those who seem to care. All true and all documented, this book is thoroughly annotated, citing the arrests and convictions of the small percentage of those who get caught. An appendix provides a comprehensive resource list of private, professional, and government agencies that offer information and consumer guidance, along with agencies that help victims of fraud.