Suspicious No-Fault Claims Accounted For Most of the 14,625 Reports of Suspected Health Care Fraud in 2010

NEW YORK, NY (03/01/2011)(readMedia)-- Suspicious no-fault automobile insurance claims accounted for most of the 14,625 reports of suspected health care-related fraud sent to the New York State Insurance Department last year.

According to the Insurance Department's 2010 Annual Report on Health Insurance Fraud issued today, there were 12,807 reports of suspected fraud involving no-fault insurance, or 88 percent of the total number of health care-related reports received.

After several years of decline, the number of suspected no-fault fraud reports began to rise in 2007 and leveled off last year when there was a slight decrease in the number of reports received compared to 2009.

Besides no-fault fraud, the report states that there were 1,625 reports of fraud related to health insurance claims and 193 related to private disability insurance.

Investigations by the Department's Frauds Bureau led to 159 arrests in 2010.

The report says that common types of health care fraud include billing for services not rendered, performing medically unnecessary treatments, filing claims for non-existent injuries and staging auto accidents.

The report can be found at this location on the Insurance Department's website, http://www.ins.state.ny.us/frauds/fd10hlthrp.pdf.

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