channel 2 action news A multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the company’s former CEO has been found as part of a bankruptcy liquidation plan for the Atlanta-based Department of Health Sharing.
For more than three years, Channel 2 has been investigating the issue of Trinity, the Ministry of Shared Health and Ariella, the company that manages its health care plans.
“I gave up. I just gave up,” Mary Lilly said of her medical bill with Ariella.
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When Kim and Mary Lilly’s 17-year-old son fell out of a golf cart, medical bills quickly ballooned to more than $90,000.
These are the bills that Trinity and Ariella refused to pay.
“They’re kind of ruining people’s lives with the afterglow of destruction,” Kim Lilly said. Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray.
A new proposed liquidation plan for Ariella’s bankruptcy filing shows $660 million in outstanding medical claims.
Families like the Lillys are expected to receive only 1 to 5 percent of their outstanding payments.
Paying medical bills was supposed to be Trinity and Ariella’s goal.
These are so-called health-sharing ministries, not strictly insurance.
Members are expected to pay insurance premiums and share in medical costs.
Over the past three years, Channel 2 Investigates has told story after story of families whose medical claims were denied by Ariella and Trinity, leaving them with five and even six figure medical debts.
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Aliera was essentially CEO Shelley Steele’s family business.
Now bankruptcy trustees are targeting Steele in an attempt to pay off more debt.
They wrote in their liquidation plan that they “seek to recover the amount of suspected fraudulent wire transfers paid in loans from Ariella to Steele.”
Eric Breithaupt is an Atlanta bankruptcy attorney who worked with us on the liquidation statement.
“There are also situations where officers and directors have been accused of committing fraud or misconduct. I was.
Last year, we introduced a bankruptcy filing claiming that Sherry Steele took over $6 million in loans from Ariella and never repaid them.
“I want her to look into my son’s face and tell me why he did that,” Kim Lily said.
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