IAFF For Sale: “It’s Dirty”

The Not So Excellent “Center For Excellence”



He agrees to no-bid contracts for insurance and investment services which enrich his friends with absolutely no guarantee that those are the best for union members.

He’d slap a for sale sign on the Virgin Mary if only she would join the IAFF.

Now, our mental health is also for sale in the form of a so-called “partnership” with a for-profit entity called the IAFF Center For Excellence.

Assuming that partnering for services at a single facility is even a rational idea, a baseline criteria should be that the cost of the services can be born by the resources that an average IAFF member can bring to bear.

That includes insurances and other sources of coverage.

If the cost exceeds our member’s abilities it is nothing more than union-based healthcare discrimination.

One member recently seeking treatment had this to say about his experience:

The IAFF center is understaffed. I would not recommend anyone going to this facility. They wanted to charge me 90K for 30 days, My insurance would only pay 50% they wanted me to pay the other half. Told me to sign and they would try and get me a scholarship. They just want my money. They can not be trusted. This center needs to be shut down. ITS DIRTY

The first question IAFF members should ask is whether or not a non-profit provider using evidence-based treatment modalities would charge $90,000 for a 30-day in-patient program?

Shady Schait

A good second question is why are IAFF members being asked to pay $45,000 of their own funds for a service the IAFF says is excellent?

It’s probably not so excellent if it bankrupts you and your family.

There are many competent providers who, no doubt, would work with the IAFF to provide treatment on a sliding fee scale, perhaps with the IAFF itself helping to defray costs.

This is just the latest example of how our union has engaged in reckless, sloppy and unethical practices while weakening the concept of union advocacy.

Once again, Shady Schaitberger sold out for form over substance, only this time your mental health goes to the highest bidder.

And so goes the IAFF in its 100th year, the labor version of Let’s Make a Deal.

End the Schaitberger Corruption



  • Victoria Huckenpahler says:

    This is sad, Eric, but not surprising. As you know, friend/neighbor Justine is in Sunrise, which has turned into a for-profit enterprise. Result: everything is about $$, little about resident care. Whenever one suggests an improvement to services, the answer is, “That depends on Corporate.” Corporate has replaced the Deity. And beyond that, even if Corporate, in its wisdom, decides to OK an improvement, it still has to be passed by the owners, who are responsible not to the residents, but to their stockholders! Recently, it was decided to make a lot of cosmetic changes — unnecessary — when the $$ could have been spent on true resident needs, like increased staffing. Don’t get me started!

  • Amica Nostra says:

    IAFF Financial Corp is another scam. They don’t write insurance in hurricane areas. That means all of Florida, the Gulf Coast including parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and coastal areas in the southeast.

    Why are so many members precluded from taking advantage of an IAFF program? Why would the IAFF not instruct the underwriters to cover all members?

    I’m not sure how competitive their rates are so this may just be blowing smoke. But it would be nice to at least have the option.

    A few years ago I wrote up a resolution for our state association convention to have IAFF Financial Corp stop discriminating. When I presented it to our President, he shot it down.

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