MediScams: Dangerous Medical Practices and Health Care Frauds--and How to Prevent Them from Harming You and Your Family

By Chuck Whitlock

Where their health is concerned, Americans want answers. Too often, what they get are false promises from medical "professionals" more intent on lightening their patients' wallets than helping to shave off those stubborn five pounds. These medical scam artists run from the petty to the downright dangerous, and their schemes can leave you poorer but wiser, hospitalized, or much worse... Now journalist Chuck Whitlock tackles the seedy world of medical scams, exposing everything from bogus pills that claim to relieve symptoms of drunkenness, to questionable weight-loss programs, to bizarre plastic surgery procedures. Called "the nation's leading scambuster" by Oprah Winfrey, Chuck Whitlock tackles treacherous HMOs, doctors, and charlatans. Then he shows the reader how to avoid falling victim to medical scams.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312306024
• ISBN13: 9780312306021
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

cool book

This book is an unusual combination of amazing stories and very, very practical advice. It is both entertaining while giving excellent warnings and tips on how to avoid being taken advantage of. Some of the information is both shocking and disturbing, but very sound advice. Anyone frustrated with their doctor or an HMO will find it especially enlightening. Some of the examples of quacks literally had me slack-jawed.