This is an update to a video I posted back in February. Apparently, some patients of a California AFC Urgent care are still receiving calls attempting to collect money on the below issue. This following a restraining order being issued in Feb. 2025.
SAN FRANCISCO TV station ABC Channel 7 KGO reported February 20th, 2025 that local residents have complained they're getting billed HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS $$$ from a Newark AFC Urgent Care (American Family Care) that administered free virus tests (one review on the BBB website mentions a $2700 USD bill). The company told the TV station they're billing patients because the insurance companies didn't fully reimburse the urgent care. Now, the Alameda County District Attorney's office has stepped in.
The owner of AFC Urgent Care in Newark says the company filed for bankruptcy after more than $30 million in unpaid claims were denied. More than four years after the virus tests were given, the company started billing patients and threatening to take them to small claims court if they didn't pay.
Patients / customers report: "We didn't see anyone who appeared to be a physician or ask us any questions about our health or symptoms," said Schiefer.
AFC Urgent Care's Better Business Bureau profile now reflects an F rating for the company, showing 50 new complaints lodged in just the last year.
I previously mentioned an Indeed review of AFC where an employee claimed of their clinic: "it’s not unheard of to see over 100 patients in a 12 hour shift"
I was a patient of AFC in 2019 and recently discovered a medical clinic office manager I had spoken with in May, 2022 at AFC (American Family Care) Urgent Care Cahaba Village (3000 Cahaba Village Pl STE 110, Birmingham, AL 35243), using the nickname "Sadler" is actually State Of Alabama licensed medical doctor, Christopher Blake Thomas MD. In my recorded calls in this video you will hear he refused to give me his first and last name when asked.
I cite a television interview (https://www.wvtm13.com/article/mountain-brook-doctor-sees-big-surge-in-covid-patients-at-clinic/37165650) with WVTM NBC 13 & play my telephone recordings back to back, the voices are identical.
I called this clinic trying to speak with Dr. Blake Thomas MD, whose name appears on medical records from a misdiagnosed X-Ray I had in 2019 but was only allowed to speak to this "office manager". I was told no injuries appeared there but almost died a few months later when 6 inches diameter of infection set into my jaw and head (visible in subsequent MRI). I obtained my records from this visit & a several inch diameter anomaly is visible in the same area where broken skull bone and infection appears in other images. AFC would not help me get this error corrected, I paid $175 for the visit.
00:00To see everything that happened to me regarding my experience with this doctor and this medical practice,
00:07you can see my documentation at YouTube channel, My Medical Nightmare.
00:12Alright, San Francisco, California based ABC Channel 7 KGO TV has a piece on another outrageous scam
00:23that AFC Urgent Care, American Family Care, has been caught trying to pull off patients and customers.
00:30Despite a restraining order being in place to prevent a Newark Urgent Care from charging patients for COVID-19 tests,
00:40which it advertises free, one patient says he recently received a call threatening to take him to collections.
00:47This is an update to a video I put up back in February 2025.
00:52KGO discovered that patients were receiving bills for up to $1,000 for these tests done in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
01:07In February, an Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order precluding this AFC Urgent Care from billing patients for these tests.
01:18You can read and see their news report at their website.
01:24My own analysis of this, if there are calls going out in violation of the restraining order,
01:31then most likely somebody is being paid to make those phone calls.
01:36I think AFC Urgent Care, American Family Care,
01:39they need to take a look at their franchise agreement with this location in California immediately.
01:48As you'll hear in this video, AFC does enough spurious and shady business to overwhelm itself with many problems.
01:59And they definitely don't need another one.
02:01Yeah, my own issues with American Family Care, AFC Urgent Care are still outstanding and unresolved as of April 18th, 2025.
02:13My own opinion on AFC is this is one of the worst medical practices in the United States of America.
02:22It needs to be investigated at all jurisdictional levels.
02:29A lot of these cases, these are slam dunk, open and shut matters.
02:33I cannot comprehend how a practice like AFC can operate and keep its doors open anywhere in the USA.
02:44And it says here, American Family Care, AFC Urgent Care, was founded in 1982.
02:51And as of 2025, they claim to have 400 walk-in clinics.
02:56They generate more than $1 billion in system-wide sales annually.
03:003,500 highly trained healthcare professionals treating over 4 million patients each year.
03:06The truth is, American Family Care is a very troubled company.
03:11And there are many, many people in the Birmingham, Alabama area and beyond who have unresolved outstanding issues and complaints with AFC Urgent Care.
03:23There are apparently a lot of people looking at the corrupt business practices of American Family Care, AFC Urgent Care, and their partners across the United States.
03:34I'll go into my own details on what happened to me as a patient and customer at an AFC near Birmingham, Alabama in 2019.
03:44I attempted to contact Randy Johansson regarding my own issues.
03:48My phone call was never returned.
03:51Yeah, if you look at my situation and what happened to me, what you'll see again and again is current medical providers and practitioners around Birmingham, Alabama,
04:01they choose quantity of patients and potential sources of money and income over quality.
04:13And by doing so, they overlook potentially life-threatening injuries, for example.
04:19They don't give the proper amount of attention to each individual customer and patient.
04:25And this is a big problem that needs to be reversed in the United States of America.
04:32We need further health care reform.
04:35And here's yet another example of the bad way in which AFC Urgent Care, American Family Care chooses to engage in their business.
04:44Back in May 2022, I tried to contact this doctor whose name appeared on the top of medical records that I requested from American Family Care.
05:02And this was in regards to a misdiagnosed x-ray of my skull that I had done in 2019.
05:15Blake Thomas, MD's name, appears here as supervising the nurse that facilitated the x-ray in the AFC clinic.
05:25This is Kimberly Kelly, and he should have also been checking over the work of radiologist Dr. Anna Maria Echnik, MDDABR, which the x-ray was outsourced to through Xperity.
05:44You call the phone number under this doctor's name on the radiologist report.
05:51It leads to Xperity.
05:53This doctor and subsequently the nurse told me I had no injuries appear in this x-ray.
06:02I'll put the actual images in this video so you can see the truth regarding this matter.
06:10I have around a 3-inch in diameter translucent oval here.
06:16This is visible in a standard x-ray.
06:19No contrast was used in this scan.
06:22Subsequently, I discovered in further MRI and CT that I had broken the underside of my skull.
06:31And the translucent oval that you can see in the AFC and Xperity x-ray, this shows up as infection surrounding the main wound.
06:42I tried to contact this doctor to get this x-ray scan looked at again because I paid $175 for this visit and I got a misdiagnosis here.
06:56This is not helpful if you're a medical patient seeking treatment with doctors and nurses, in this case licensed in the state of Alabama.
07:10I found that this doctor was located at the American Family Care Clinic in Cava Village off Highway 280 in Birmingham.
07:21I tried to call this doctor's office.
07:26It was then that I found out by talking to the receptionist.
07:31Every individual that worked in this location that I spoke with, they used a nickname, a false name, or a pseudonym.
07:43In trying to reach Dr. Blake Thomas, MD, I was put in touch with an individual who identified himself as the office manager of this clinic.
07:58And he went by the name Sadler, S-A-D-D-L-E-R.
08:04I later found out after my call with this office manager that I was in fact speaking with the state of Alabama licensed medical doctor, Christopher Blake Thomas, who I was trying to reach in the first place.
08:23So he gave a false name.
08:26And I found this out very simply.
08:28You can hear my recorded calls with this individual.
08:33And Dr. Blake Thomas gave a television interview with Birmingham, Alabama, TV station WVTM, channel 13.
08:43Listen to the two voices, and they are identical.
08:47I believe that a medical doctor identifying himself under a pseudonym is against the law in Alabama, and possibly other jurisdictions as well.
09:01This is a type of fraud.
09:03I'm not very happy about my experience dealing with this individual.
09:09Yeah, in trying to get that x-ray and the misdiagnosis looked at again, the office manager, again, a false identity that this doctor was using.
09:21He told me that he could do nothing to help me fix this situation.
09:28No refund of my $175.
09:34He wouldn't go to the medical doctor or Xperity and have this situation looked at or reversed.
09:42He told me on the phone, you can hear this recorded, there's nothing he was going to be able to do to help me fix this situation.
09:49And this is real bad news because that injury that I had, I almost died for him in 2019.
09:55This is totally unacceptable as a medical patient.
09:59AFC as well, I contacted.
10:02They would not help me with this situation.
10:05I talked to Xperity.
10:07They would not help me fix this situation or correct this.
10:10And basically, I was ripped off as a customer and a medical patient.
10:15I went to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.
10:19And filed complaints in this situation.
10:23They would do nothing to help me with their oversight.
10:27Totally useless.
10:28They're lazy.
10:30No doctor worth their salt should work for this place.
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