Case Types -Medical Malpractice Abuse

NY Plastic Surgery Medical Malpractice

Plastic Surgeon Problems

In New York, a plastic surgeon was charged with this scheme:

(1) an employee of the defendant, who had no medical license and was not acting under a physician's supervision, performed procedures such as lesion removals and cosmetic vein injections, which were billed as though they had been performed by a licensed physician

(2) the defendant's clinic billed cosmetic procedures, such as tummy-tucks and liposuctions, as medically necessary procedures, such as hernia and lesion removals, in order to obtain insurance coverage

(3) the clinic submitted claims to insurance companies for procedures that were never performed

(4) the clinic exaggerated insurance claims by increasing the number and complexity of procedures actually performed. At sentencing the judge found that the defendant intended to cause approximately $2.5 million in losses to 18 private insurance companies. The judge imposed an upward departure from the sentencing guidelines range, finding that the defendant's obstruction of justice was "widespread and diverse," and included tampering with witnesses, attempting to get other witnesses to lie, falsifying the clinic's medical records, destroying the clinic's records, submitting a false affidavit to the court in connection with a bail hearing and committing "wholesale perjury at trial." The defendant was sentenced to 11 years, 3 months in prison and ordered to pay $918,000 in restitution to the insurance company victims.