Here we are again, dear readers, at the end of the week.  So, what your humble blogger would like you to check your files for liens Liberty Medical Group, Inc., of Rancho Cucamonga.  The reason why is, Doctor Kevin Tien Do has agreed to plead guilty to fraud in relation to his work for Liberty Medical Group.

InsuranceJournal.com reports that Dr. Do wrote reports for Liberty Medical Group, Inc., related to the Subsequent Injuries Benefit Trust Fund.  When Dr. Do was suspended from participating in the workers compensation program, he continued to write reports (and bill for them) but Liberty Medical Group would submit the reports as if they were authored by other doctors, thus circumventing the suspension.

Dr. Do admitted that he “conspired to defraud the state of millions of dollars by defrauding California’s [SIBTF].”  But don’t let the semantics fool you – SIBTF is funded by state collections from employers, which means the depleting of the fund results in more payments by employers to correct.  Of course, that means higher costs for the rest of us when patronizing the businesses not driver to closure by the cost of doing business in California.

Seriously… what the heck?

In this particular case, SIBTF was the target of fraud.  But what system do we have in place to avoid the same practice where the target is a self-insured employer or a workers’ compensation insurance company?

Imagine the time and the effort it takes to get a dishonest doctor out of the comp system, only to have him or her come back by recruiting a doctor with a good name and authoring (and billing for) more poison reports.

Your humble blogger does not have a solution in mind for this practice, but it serves as more evidence that the workers’ compensation system is open to exploitation by unscrupulous actors.

Have a great weekend, dear readers!