[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 70 (Friday, May 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S5147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
S. 625, THE AUTO CHOICE REFORM ACT OF 1997
Mr. MOYNIHAN. On April 22, 1997, I introduced S. 625, the Auto
Choice Reform Act of 1997, along with Senators Joe Lieberman, Mitch
McConnell, Slade Gorton, and Rod Grams. S. 625 is designed to reform
the Nation's auto-insurance system by giving motorists a low-cost
alternative for bodily injury coverage that provides quicker, more
comprehensive recovery of economic losses.
The Auto Choice Reform Act would remove many incentives for fraud,
which is endemic to the current auto-insurance system. On Wednesday,
May 21, 1997, for instance the Nassau County District Attorney's office
arrested 20 people involved in a massive insurance fraud scam. Those
arrested by operation backbone included lawyers, chiropractors, and a
doctor. Our bill would eliminate many of the incentives that promote
this kind of abuse.
I ask that the Newsday article, ``Real Charges: Fake Injuries Lead to
20 Arrests in Insurance Scams,'' be printed in the Record.
The article follows:
[From Newsday, Thursday, May 22, 1997]
Real Charges
(By Pete Bowles)
After prepping a ``patient'' for four minutes on how to
fake injuries during a medical exam--including a
demonstration on moaning ``ooh and aah''--Hempstead
chiropractor Martin Drasin said his client was ready for an
award-winning performance, according to a videotape made by
an undercover investigator.
``I know how they are going to try to trick you up,''
Drasin told the agent, who carried a hidden video recorder.
Drasin advised the man on what to do when asked to move his
legs up and down at the exam. ``Give an ooh and an aah and
say, `I can't do that,' '' he said, and added: ``Move slow.
You'll get the Oscar here.''
Drasin, 42, whose video performance was played by Nassau
District Attorney Denis Dillon at a news conference, was
among 20 people--including 12 chiropractors, four attorneys
and an orthopedist--charged yesterday with submitting
fraudulent claims for automobile no-fault insurance,
disability and workers' compensation insurance.
Dillon said the 20 were nabbed during a two-year
investigation called Operation Backbone, in which law-
enforcement agents posing as accident victims sought legal
and medical assistance from attorneys and chiropractors. The
targets had been selected by insurance companies who
suspected skullduggery.
All the meetings were recorded, Dillon said. Playing the
part of accident victims were undercover operatives from the
DA's office, the Nassau County Police Department, the
National Insurance Crime Bureau and the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service.
All but one of the suspects were arrested yesterday on a
variety of charges, including insurance fraud, grand larceny,
scheming to defraud and falsifying business records.
Freeport attorney Alvin Dorfman, 62, a former Democratic
committeeman who challenged Dillon for the Democratic
designation for district attorney in 1974, was said to be in
Israel on vacation and is expected to surrender next week for
arraignment in U.S. District Court in Uniondale. He was
charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
``Both my clients maintain they are completely innocent,''
said Dorfman's attorney, Stephen Scaring, who also represents
Garden City attorney Gerard McLoughlin, 49, who was charged
with insurance fraud and attempted grand larceny. ``We are
somewhat shocked that this kind of undercover operation would
occur, and we are confident that the tapes themselves will
likely establish the innocence of each of these defendants.''
Seventeen defendants pleaded innocent in First District
Court in Hempstead and were released. They face up to 7 years
in prison if convicted. Two others, Dorfman's legal
assistant, Mariela Brito, 33, and Woodbury chiropractor
Jonathan Tepper, were arraigned in federal court in Uniondale
on mail fraud and conspiracy charges and ordered held on
$50,000 bond each. They face up to 5 years' imprisonment if
convicted.
Calls left at the offices of the 20 were not returned.
At a news conference with local and federal law-enforcement
officials, Dillon said the medical providers billed insurance
companies for services not rendered and gave undercover
agents letters stating they were disabled and unable to work
because of injuries suffered in accidents. He said the
accidents were on ``paper only'' and were filed with police
as a ruse.
In some instances, Dillon said, the agents received
chiropractic treatment fewer than 12 times but the
chiropractors billed insurance companies for more than 100
visits.
He charged that chiropractor George Mitzman, 41, of
Westbury, treated one agent 11 times and billed the insurance
company for 150 visits. Another defendant, chiropractor
Michael Roth, 29, with offices in Bellmore and Syosset,
treated an agent once but billed for 90 visits, Dillon said.
Dillon said the four attorneys assisted the purported
accident victims in fabricating phony lost-wages claims,
while in fact the victims said they were working, and
submitted falsified documents supporting the claims. He said
the attorneys also referred victims to medical providers to
obtain disability letters and advised them how to exaggerate
injuries.
In one case cited by Dillon, Hempstead attorney Mitchell
Rachlin, 47, was charged with collecting more than $626,000
from his insurance carrier for a phony disability claim he
filed in 1990 for injuries he sustained in an accident.
Rachlin, who claimed to be totally disabled, was shown on a
videotape walking around his law office as he advised an
undercover agent on how to file a claim for lost wages for a
traffic accident.
On another videotape played by Dillon, Dr. Martin Lehman,
64, a Wantagh orthopedist, is shown meeting with an
undercover operative who tells Lehman she was working despite
being injured in an accident. ``You are not working as far as
insurance is concerned,'' Lehman is heard telling the woman.
Without performing a physical examination, Lehman gave the
woman a disability form, Dillon said.
Also charged were: chiropractors Robert Moore, 43, and Jay
Levine, 44, with offices in Franklin Square, and their
receptionist, Maureen MacPherson, 30; Rockville Centre
chiropractor Joseph Huseman III, 39; Franklin Square attorney
Scott Garil, 29; North Bellmore chiropractor Susan Schulman,
36; Plainview chiropractor Christopher Haas, 32; Oceanside
chiropractor Jeffrey Finkelstein, 41; Lynbrook chiropractor
Steven Angel, 40; Port Washington, chiropractor Charles
Schnier, 45; and Robert Cannon, 59, of Massapequa, a medical-
supply distributor.
____________________