How Are We Doing?
Some Current Statistics
Arrests and Convictions: January – September, 2003 – 2005
- The Frauds Bureau posted 485 arrests during the first three quarters of 2005, compared with 656 during the same period in 2004.
A number of multi-agency investigations contributed for the total arrests for the first nine months of 2005, including the following:
- An investigation by the Frauds Bureau and other members of the Federal Health Care Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, led to the arrest of 29 suspects in a fraud sweep that took place in both New York City and the Buffalo-Niagara region in August. The suspects were accused of participating in a series of staged accidents in Western New York in which the drivers and several passengers in each car falsely claimed they were injured and sought medical treatment at clinics that were involved in the scheme. In some cases, the suspects who claimed injury were miles away in Brooklyn at the time of the alleged accidents. Another round of indictments, including doctors and lawyers who were involved in the medical mill operation, is expected in this continuing investigation.
- A six month investigation by the Frauds Bureau, the Bronx DA’s Office and the New York State Inspector General’s Office led to the arrest of 16 New York State employees. Between December 2002 and April 2005, they allegedly submitted more than $600,000 in claims for medical treatments they never received. They were also accused of pocketing $389,423 paid out on those claims. The defendants were employed by the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities or the State University of New York and were covered under The Empire Plan, the health insurance program for New York State workers. The investigation began when the insurer discovered that the treatment code on one of the claims was incorrect and contacted the doctor. When the doctor told the insurer that the person who submitted the claim was not one of her patients, the insurer brought the matter to the attention of the Frauds Bureau.
The day-to-day investigations conducted by Frauds Bureau investigators that routinely lead to hundreds of arrests throughout the year are also a factor in the Bureau’s total.
The number of criminal convictions obtained by prosecutors in Frauds Bureau cases totaled 342 for the first nine months of 2005, up from 280 for the same period in 2004 and 269 in 2003.
- Reports of suspected fraud totaled 20,186 for the January – September 2005 period, down from the same period during the two prior years.
