Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Heart Check and Life Score Clinic didn't work so well

Dr. Phillip Milgram:“I lost everything I ever made in life from the business"

Phillip Milgram
Phillip Milgram

Scan scam. San Diego, not surprisingly, is in the middle of this one. In 1992, Los Angeles financier Bruce Friedman set up Heart Check America. “We were a regular imaging center. A doctor prescribes a scan, you pay at time of service,” says Friedman.

He sold it in 2009 to investors, particularly the Haddad family of suburban Chicago. David Haddad and his family came out of the resort time-share business. Indeed, the State of Indiana accused the Haddads of deceiving customers, and in 2009, a $470,602 default judgment was entered against the family, according to Pro Publica, which has been instrumental in exposing Heart Check.

After Friedman sold Heart Check, the company opened a San Diego operation. Heart Check changed its business model. Potential customers would be offered a free heart scan. But to get it, they would have to listen to a high-pressure pitch to buy a ten-year contract for $3000 plus an annual payment of $199. Customers could get bone-density, heart, lung, and other kinds of scans on a regular basis. “I voiced my opinion that this was a bad idea,” says Friedman. “Do I know what medical procedures might be appropriate five or ten years down the road? No.” But Haddad was a resort time-share salesman: “If the only tool a guy knows is a hammer, the only solution is ‘Let’s hammer.’”

Pretty soon, customers in the nation’s various Heart Check locations were complaining bitterly. They would pay money up front, go through the process, but not get their scans, or get scans their doctors couldn’t interpret. Karl Thorpe of Fallbrook heard the sales pitch. “I paid $3000. Then I tried to contact them to get a colon check. Nobody was there,” he says.

Last year, the Illinois attorney general filed suit against the company and the Haddads for using unfair and deceptive business practices to sell consumers the ten-year contracts. Colorado assessed the company more than $3 million for unethical practices, and not getting paid, turned the matter over to a collection agency. Nevada shuttered Heart Check locations. A civil suit was filed in Nevada, charging that the company drew up deceptive and illegal contracts in wooing customers. There has been a settlement with a bank that was a party to the contracts. Heart Check is named in the suit but is “insolvent and no longer a going concern,” according to the law firm handling the suit.

Sponsored
Sponsored
LifeScore clinic in La Jolla

Back in 1999, a scanning operation named LifeScore Clinic was launched in San Diego by Dr. Phillip Milgram and another physician. “We had an electron beam scanner,” says Milgram. However, “I lost everything I ever made in life from the business. I got overextended. I had too much debt. People were not paying money. I had to close the business in 2009.”

Milgram graduated from a medical school in Guadalajara. He is in obstetrics and gynecology, and also specializes in laser toenail fungus removal. In 1999, he was disciplined by the California State Medical Board for “negligence; excessive treatment; failure to maintain accurate records, and incompetence,” according to board records. He surrendered his license. Then he lost his license in New York and Nevada because he did not reveal the California action. He got his California license back in 2004.

He claims his license trouble began when “My girlfriend committed suicide and at her funeral somebody wrote me a note” and threatened to “get” him. He blames the California Medical Board’s action on the complaint that person filed, but the charges seem too serious to have been generated by one individual.

Milgram was a clinical instructor at the University of California San Diego Medical Center from 1994 to 1997 but did not have a faculty appointment. “The instructor appointment ended due to lack of participation” by Milgram, and he has nothing to do with the university now, says a spokesperson.

“I have known David Haddad for many years,” admits Milgram. He says he helped with setting up the San Diego Heart Check operation. “They promised me I would be medical director, but I never saw one patient with Heart Check America. They felt they didn’t need a doctor.”

When Milgram’s LifeScore Clinic was in trouble, Dan Gallagher, also from a Chicago suburb, rode into town. “I terminated him after one month,” says Milgram.

Gallagher helped finance scan businesses with names similar to Milgram’s: Life Score Screening and Life Score Management. He says he was more of a passive investor and found out belatedly that David Haddad had been brought in as a consultant. “When I found out David Haddad got in there, I did my due diligence and realized it was a stupid decision.” Haddad and Milgram “stole my employees, stole my workers. They were telling my patients to go to [Milgram’s] LifeScore Clinic. I feel like a fool, like an idiot — I have been used.”

He says he plans to sue Haddad and Milgram. His attorney has written the Haddads, demanding that they cease and desist contacting Gallagher’s vendors.

Gallagher abruptly closed his two operations in San Diego. That left some scars. Yuri Delbruck paid $99 for a scan but never got a report. “The appointment was more like a time-share sales talk meeting, and we were there for three hours,” she complains.

Milgram says Gallagher tried to steal his business while Gallagher says Milgram and Haddad tried to steal his business.

This March, Milgram got financial support from an investor he won’t name and reopened the LifeScore Clinic at 4130 La Jolla Village Drive. He hopes to gain back the money he has lost. He offers low-dose CAT (computerized axial tomography) scans, ultrasound, and other tests, hoping to detect undiagnosed cancer and other tumors, coronary artery disease, stroke risk, plaque, and the like.

Many medical practitioners are skeptical of such tests unless a patient shows signs of needing them. But Milgram rejoins, “The way the medical system works is to wait to act until the patient gets sick.”

Haddad did not respond to phone calls. ■

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Next Article

Croome Brothers Trio, Jack Tempchin, Ricky, Swami & the Bed Of Nails, Kahlil Nash

Acoustic and electric in Del Mar, La Jolla, Little Italy, and City Heights
Phillip Milgram
Phillip Milgram

Scan scam. San Diego, not surprisingly, is in the middle of this one. In 1992, Los Angeles financier Bruce Friedman set up Heart Check America. “We were a regular imaging center. A doctor prescribes a scan, you pay at time of service,” says Friedman.

He sold it in 2009 to investors, particularly the Haddad family of suburban Chicago. David Haddad and his family came out of the resort time-share business. Indeed, the State of Indiana accused the Haddads of deceiving customers, and in 2009, a $470,602 default judgment was entered against the family, according to Pro Publica, which has been instrumental in exposing Heart Check.

After Friedman sold Heart Check, the company opened a San Diego operation. Heart Check changed its business model. Potential customers would be offered a free heart scan. But to get it, they would have to listen to a high-pressure pitch to buy a ten-year contract for $3000 plus an annual payment of $199. Customers could get bone-density, heart, lung, and other kinds of scans on a regular basis. “I voiced my opinion that this was a bad idea,” says Friedman. “Do I know what medical procedures might be appropriate five or ten years down the road? No.” But Haddad was a resort time-share salesman: “If the only tool a guy knows is a hammer, the only solution is ‘Let’s hammer.’”

Pretty soon, customers in the nation’s various Heart Check locations were complaining bitterly. They would pay money up front, go through the process, but not get their scans, or get scans their doctors couldn’t interpret. Karl Thorpe of Fallbrook heard the sales pitch. “I paid $3000. Then I tried to contact them to get a colon check. Nobody was there,” he says.

Last year, the Illinois attorney general filed suit against the company and the Haddads for using unfair and deceptive business practices to sell consumers the ten-year contracts. Colorado assessed the company more than $3 million for unethical practices, and not getting paid, turned the matter over to a collection agency. Nevada shuttered Heart Check locations. A civil suit was filed in Nevada, charging that the company drew up deceptive and illegal contracts in wooing customers. There has been a settlement with a bank that was a party to the contracts. Heart Check is named in the suit but is “insolvent and no longer a going concern,” according to the law firm handling the suit.

Sponsored
Sponsored
LifeScore clinic in La Jolla

Back in 1999, a scanning operation named LifeScore Clinic was launched in San Diego by Dr. Phillip Milgram and another physician. “We had an electron beam scanner,” says Milgram. However, “I lost everything I ever made in life from the business. I got overextended. I had too much debt. People were not paying money. I had to close the business in 2009.”

Milgram graduated from a medical school in Guadalajara. He is in obstetrics and gynecology, and also specializes in laser toenail fungus removal. In 1999, he was disciplined by the California State Medical Board for “negligence; excessive treatment; failure to maintain accurate records, and incompetence,” according to board records. He surrendered his license. Then he lost his license in New York and Nevada because he did not reveal the California action. He got his California license back in 2004.

He claims his license trouble began when “My girlfriend committed suicide and at her funeral somebody wrote me a note” and threatened to “get” him. He blames the California Medical Board’s action on the complaint that person filed, but the charges seem too serious to have been generated by one individual.

Milgram was a clinical instructor at the University of California San Diego Medical Center from 1994 to 1997 but did not have a faculty appointment. “The instructor appointment ended due to lack of participation” by Milgram, and he has nothing to do with the university now, says a spokesperson.

“I have known David Haddad for many years,” admits Milgram. He says he helped with setting up the San Diego Heart Check operation. “They promised me I would be medical director, but I never saw one patient with Heart Check America. They felt they didn’t need a doctor.”

When Milgram’s LifeScore Clinic was in trouble, Dan Gallagher, also from a Chicago suburb, rode into town. “I terminated him after one month,” says Milgram.

Gallagher helped finance scan businesses with names similar to Milgram’s: Life Score Screening and Life Score Management. He says he was more of a passive investor and found out belatedly that David Haddad had been brought in as a consultant. “When I found out David Haddad got in there, I did my due diligence and realized it was a stupid decision.” Haddad and Milgram “stole my employees, stole my workers. They were telling my patients to go to [Milgram’s] LifeScore Clinic. I feel like a fool, like an idiot — I have been used.”

He says he plans to sue Haddad and Milgram. His attorney has written the Haddads, demanding that they cease and desist contacting Gallagher’s vendors.

Gallagher abruptly closed his two operations in San Diego. That left some scars. Yuri Delbruck paid $99 for a scan but never got a report. “The appointment was more like a time-share sales talk meeting, and we were there for three hours,” she complains.

Milgram says Gallagher tried to steal his business while Gallagher says Milgram and Haddad tried to steal his business.

This March, Milgram got financial support from an investor he won’t name and reopened the LifeScore Clinic at 4130 La Jolla Village Drive. He hopes to gain back the money he has lost. He offers low-dose CAT (computerized axial tomography) scans, ultrasound, and other tests, hoping to detect undiagnosed cancer and other tumors, coronary artery disease, stroke risk, plaque, and the like.

Many medical practitioners are skeptical of such tests unless a patient shows signs of needing them. But Milgram rejoins, “The way the medical system works is to wait to act until the patient gets sick.”

Haddad did not respond to phone calls. ■

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

OSHA rules wall falls our fault

Who, U.S.?
Next Article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.