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Operation Interstate is an ongoing five-month investigation taking place in 11 states and involving 18 Ohio Bureau of Work Comp fraud investigators and analysts. BWC currently has 34 open investigations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, New York, Tennessee and Texas. The total estimated savings for Operation Interstate are well over $15 million.
BWC investigators discovered through computer cross matches that former Ohioans have continued to receive workers’ compensation benefits illegally while they took jobs in other states. In addition, computer data gave BWC fraud analysts lists of potentially unscrupulous medical providers who may be trying to rip off Ohio’s workers comp system.
Yasser Sansil, owner of Immediate Care Enterprises, Inc., located in Lauderhill, Florida, was arrested for allegedly billing BWC $1.68 million (over a three-and-a-half-year period) for medical services not tendered to an injured worker living in Florida.
BWC investigators reviewed the bills submitted and identified a fraudulent pattern of billing which included expensive diagnostic tests performed on an injured worker. Personal interviews with Sansil’s co-workers revealed doctors listed as providing treatment do not recall knowing or treating the injured worker. An interview of the injured worker revealed that he was a patient at the clinic; however, he was unable to describe a number of tests that were allegedly performed on him. He was also unable to identify photographs of the doctors who allegedly treated him.
The hunt goes on. Investigators have gained confessions from 14 other individuals who have admitted to defrauding BWC. Operation Interstate is putting a scalpel, suture, clamp on fraud.
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