Weeks after complaining to The Joint Commission about a mobile medical screening company, a watchdog group asks the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company's promotional materials amount to deceptive advertising.
The debate over screening for heart disease and other conditions is playing out in a consumer group's campaign to get hospitals to cut ties with the mobile screening company HealthFair Health Screening.
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A handful of hospitals have discontinued their relationships with Florida-based HealthFair after Public Citizen's Health Research Group (HRG) accused the company of "fear-mongering." In June, Public Citizen contacted HealthFair's hospital clients and The Joint Commission to complain that company overstates the health benefits of its screening programs.
Last week, Public Citizen expanded its campaign by asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether HealthFair's promotional materials amount to deceptive advertising.
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"It is exploitative for HealthFair and its hospital partners to profit from the promotion of medically nonbeneficial testing through the use of misleading advertisements and solicitations that play on people's fear," HRG director Dr. Michael A. Carome wrote in a Sept. 4 letter to the agency.
HealthFair CEO Terry Diaz on Tuesday defended the company's approach and said he welcomes the debate over the value of screening programs. "We know that there are strong opinions on both sides of the issue," he said.
An FTC spokesman reached Tuesday night said the agency does not comment on complaints.
Carome counts five hospitals that have indicated that contracts with Health Far have expired or will not be renewed. None cited pressure from Public Citizen. A representative of Loyola University Health System in the suburbs of Chicago wrote an email stating, "Our program with HealthFair is ending at the end of September, 2014," noting that he could not provide more information.
Mercy Health in Cincinnati defended its relationship with the company last week, noting that hospital employees are "closely involved in the design of our heart screening program with HealthFair." The hospital approves ads and chooses which tests are offered, according to hospital spokeswoman Nanette Bentley. Mercy assesses each patient's risk and informs them when "the screenings may be of limited value."
"But ultimately, the decision to participate is up to the patient," Bentley wrote in an email.
Public Citizen's Health Research Group director Michael A. Carome, MD, argues that the medical evidence is clear: The screening programs are harmful or of limited value to most patients. "There is a subset of people for whom getting one or the other of these tests is appropriate," he said. "Their primary care doctors can order them."
HealthFair's 40-foot clinic buses, which are equipped with examining rooms and imaging devices, travel to hospitals and workplace wellness sites. Its response to the June letters described Public Citizen as an "anti-preventive screening group" in favor of government-controlled healthcare system. The written response cited a handful of studies to support its screening program and quoted from patient endorsements.
Patient comments included: "This screening possibly saved my life… The cardiologist told me that I wouldn't have been around this time next year if the problem hadn't been discovered… I told all my friends that those screenings really saved my life"
In the letter to the FTC, Carome argues that the company's description of the benefits of screening is "deceptive because they are not substantiated by the level of evidence widely accepted in the medical community… The most egregious claims in this regard are those explicitly stating or strongly implying that the cardiovascular disease screening packages offered by the company save lives, extend life, and prevent heart attacks and strokes."
Diaz says he agrees on the need for more formal evidence supporting the benefits of screening and would like contribute data from HealthFair programs. Claims in the company's marketing material about the mortality benefits of screening are based on hundreds of patient testimonials HealthFair has collected, he said.
"It's really just reporting what our patients say to us," Diaz said.
Carome hangs part of his case the on findings of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a federally sponsored panel that reviews evidence and issues guidelines on screening and prevention programs. In addition, Patrick T. O'Gara, MD, president of the American College of Cardiology wrote in his blog that "the questions raised [by Public Citizen] about screening have some merit."
At the same time, HealthFair recently won an endorsement from a professional group: accreditation for its mammography program from the American College of Radiology.
In response to the Public Citizen request, Diaz said the company has scheduled a meeting with The Joint Commission. He also said he plans to work with the FTC to address the Public Citizen complaints about advertising.
Carome at Public Citizen said the group is aware of similar screening programs and investigating the claims of another mobile group.