HMO bait and switch?

February 26, 2010 - 11:16 AM by Brian Blum

Maccabi Health Fund

When I received a call from our Maccabi Tivi, the complementary medicine branch of our local HMO, offering a massage and reflexology treatment for only NIS 100 (just over $25), I jumped at the chance. After all, my favorite luxury vacation has always been a trip to a spa (of which there are now plenty in Israel) with a massage included. Those rub downs, however, are usually upwards of NIS 300 ($80).

The Maccabi deal, unfortunately, was a bit of a bait and switch. In order to get the massage, you have to first see the doctor whose job is to sell you additional treatments. The appointment then became a kind of game of cat and mouse where I needed to tell the doctor what ailed me, but not too much, lest he send me for acupuncture instead of shiatsu.

I didn’t have much to worry about. Dr. Rosenbaum was pleasant enough, waddling in late for our meeting. He asked me some questions and typed them slowly, one finger at a time, into his computer. He felt my pulse and asked me to stick out my tongue. Then he sent me on my way without a single alternative recommendation.

My massage was immediately afterward. It was also part of the bait and switch. Not that my masseuse Nadav was in on the game. But the shiatsu was brief – under 30 minutes – and much of it consisted of his placing two fingers on strategic parts of my back and holding them there for several minutes. Not exactly a strenuous workout.

Nadav seemed, in fact, more interested in getting back to his granola bar, which he greedily stuffed into his mouth before I had even left the treatment room.

My reflexology appointment is next week. I have to decide if it’s worth the time – an hour and a half back and forth with Jerusalem’s horrendous center city traffic – not to mention the cost of the parking.

I’m expecting a sales call on the phone shortly. “How did I like it?” “Am I ready to sign up for more?” I’ll act politely interested, then insist on a full hour, no doctor, no granola bars and validated parking.

OK, maybe not the parking.

Share with others