Insurers Allege 'Hot Girl' Bikini FraudPublished: 2010-07-15 19:52:39Author: TIM HULL | Courthouse News Service | April 14, 2010MINNEAPOLIS (CN) - An ad agency conspired with chiropractors to use
misleading ads, police scanners and "hot girl" bikini contests to
persuade Latinos who were in car accidents to seek unneeded medical
treatments, four insurance companies say in a federal RICO complaint.
The
insurers say they paid more than $250,000 in claims under Minnesota's
no-fault medical insurance program to the owners of three mobile
chiropractic and massage clinics.
Illinois Farmers Insurance
and its co-plaintiffs say Linea Latina De Accidentes solicits patients
for the mobile clinics by promising free health care and legal
representation, cash, shopping sprees, gasoline gift cards, gift bags
and bikini contests at a local bar - all to defraud insurance providers.
In
a typical case, the insurers say, a Linea Latina "runner" arrives at an
accident victim's home, followed shortly by one of the mobile
chiropractic clinics. The runners encourage the accident victims to
receive expensive adjustments, even if they were not injured, saying
that they'll feel pain "later on," the complaint states.
"One
of these insureds was diagnosed by defendant Advanced Injury Specialists
with 13 different diagnosed injuries from his motor vehicle accident
despite the fact that the insured was denying being injured in the
accident," according to the complaint. "The insured's only interest in
contacting Linea Latina had been to get assistance in communicating with
the police and getting his vehicle fixed."
The insurers say the
defendants billed them for substandard and incomplete treatments,
charged excessive fees and took illegal kickbacks.
They add
that Linea Latina has no "visible source of revenue." It gets money from
its chiropractor partners, though it does not disclose this arrangement, the insurers say.
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