Florida Woman Charged for Threatening Insurance Company: ‘You People are Next”
Briana Boston was caught on tape saying, “Delay, deny, depose.”
Briana Boston, 42, of Lakeland, FL, faces jail time after she allegedly threatened the people of BlueCross BlueShield.
Authorities charged her “with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.”
In a recorded call, Boston said, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”
The words “delay, deny, depose” were on the bullet casings that killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Luigi Mangione, 26, has been charged in Thompson’s murder. From WFLA:
The affidavit noted the similarities between the incidents, stating that those words have become nationally recognized as a phrase “directed against insurance companies.”
“She’s been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think that we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail,” said Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor.
Police made contact with Boston at her home in Lakeland, where she reportedly admitted to using those words during the call, telling detectives that “healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil.”
The mother of three supposedly admitted she used the phrase “because it’s what is in the news right now.”
Boston stressed she did not “mean anything by it.”
“She’s been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think that we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail,” stated Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor.
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Comments
It sounds like free speech to me, and the reaction is soap opera.
In lit crit death represents change, not a threat. Death of the old self. Language is where that idea is kept.
Threatening to kill someone (“you people are next”) is not protected free speech. You would think that people would learn that something that is acceptable to say in a dinner conversation among friends is not acceptable to e-mail or post to the entire world. May she have to spend a few days in jail and have to hire an expensive lawyer to get her out.
Thats not threatening to kill somebody, unless she indicates elsewhere that she’s the one aiming to do it. Otherwise, it’s just a general observation, like the one I once made predicting that by 2020, Carl Drega would be recognized as a trendsetter. (It was a swing and a miss.)
I have found that medical professions uniformly give a huge discount if you pay cash. The reason is insurance company hassle and underpayment is avoided.
NOPE- flat out opposite in my experience. As an ardent Dave Ramsey guy I’d love nothing more than to pay cash out of pocket for services. Virtually every place we talked to charges non-insured cash payers TOP dollar.
I’d totally back legislation mandating cash on the spot payers get matched with the lowest negotiated rates of any insurance company INCLUDING mecaid and medcare.
Yow! I agree, but try asking https://www.perplexity.ai/ this question: “Why do health care providers charge cash paying patients more than they charge insured patients”. It starts out with
“Contrary to the premise of the query, health care providers often charge cash-paying patients less than insured patients for the same services. This counterintuitive phenomenon has been observed across various aspects of the healthcare system.”
Although I have found perplexity.ai to be extremely reliable, I call BS on this. It does say that
Hospitals often maintain a “chargemaster” list of prices:
These list prices are typically much higher than what insurers actually pay.
Uninsured patients are at greater risk of being billed the full chargemaster price.
But perplexity.ai should talk with my dentist.
It’s right, and it’s wrong. If you walk in for service and say you’re going to pay cash, you’ll get charged top dollar. If you talk to your doctor about future service but whine that you have no health insurance, suddenly deals begin blooming for you. The request you’re making is in both cases practically identical, but coming at it from the angle of “I’d have to pay you cash” instead of “I want to pay you cash” makes all the negotiating difference. Never thought I’d have to haggle for healthcare like auto parts in a Cairo souk but there you go.
Try this at a hospital or urgent care and you’ll pay 100k for a broken wrist.
Eventually the consequences of doing dumbass or arrogant things always catches up. Those who have somehow gone through life managing to avoid serious consequences always seem surprised the moment those consequences finally arrive for them. Then their excuses and their tears flow like Niagara Falls. Don’t FAFO.
Threats are no longer taken lightly.
Except on college campuses.
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