New York Insurance Fraud Lawyers at Norman Spencer Law Group PC’s law firm have built an excellent criminal defense track record of defending individuals accused of criminal charges and various types of insurance fraud in New York state and federal courts.

Insurance fraud offenses can take many different forms. In general, any conduct and acts involving making false statements or intentional misrepresentations to an insurance carrier to obtain some financial gain.

• Health insurance fraud committed by healthcare professionals involving billing, which includes Medicare, Medicaid, and private providers;
• Medicaid fraud committed by recipients;
• Property and home insurance fraud (including staged home fires);
• Life insurance fraud

There are also some other types of insurance fraud, which include the following:

• Unemployment insurance fraud
• Workers compensation fraud
• Auto insurance fraud
• Insurance policy fraud is committed by insurance agents and insurance company professionals, such as theft and diversion of money, both stealing from the insurer

Insurance fraud case investigations are different than other criminal or semi-criminal investigations because they are often conducted not by federal government law-enforcement agencies but rather by insurance companies themselves. As New York insurance fraud attorneys experienced in dealing with insurance providers’ insurance fraud issues and inquiries often engage in “audits” and “investigations,” not because they act on suspicion of insurance fraud but because they use the investigative process as a means to avoid payments by using the power of intimidation.

Of course, this does not suggest that all insurance fraud inquiries are baseless. Many legitimate investigations result in criminal prosecution and conviction. However, an experienced insurance fraud criminal defense attorney may be able to prevent extreme results and provide protection to the client who is subject to an insurance fraud inquiry. The insurance fraud New York criminal defense lawyers with Norman Spencer Law Group PC have represented individual and corporate clients in insurance fraud audits and inquiries with a high degree of success.

In all insurance fraud inquiries conducted by insurers, our primary goal is to protect the client and the client’s business. In several recent cases, we represented physicians whom the insurance companies’ insurance fraud investigators targeted for alleged fraudulent billing practices. After mounting an aggressive criminal defense strategy with our insurance fraud lawyers in New York City, the insurance fraud charges were terminated, and no referrals to law enforcement agencies were made.

We’ve seen a few reasons in our New York City law firm (and we’ve handled many of them). Sometimes, it’s just greed, plain and simple. After all, everyone knows that insurance companies are rich, so it’s not a big deal if they lose some money. Many people commit insurance fraud crimes because of financial necessity or because they are just struggling to make ends meet. Others don’t view it as wrong because it’s hard to identify an insurance company as a “victim.” In their mind, robbing a bank is wrong, but taking a claim to which one is not entitled is not necessarily bad.

Insurance companies in the United States are highly aggressive when pursuing fraudulent health insurance claims. Still, they often abuse policyholders and enrolled providers when they feel they can get away without paying. A typical health insurance fraud practice used by many major carriers is targeting a health care provider, usually a small-to-medium medical practice. Typically, the practitioner receives a request from the insurer asking to provide records for a limited number of patients, from 10 to 20. They justify the request by an actual or assumed provision in the provider agreement (in cases where it exists). When the providers comply, whether or not they have the authority to make such demands, the carrier’s insurance fraud auditors examine the files, always find some inconsistencies, irregularities, and errors, real or perceived, and determine that the health care provider overbilled the insurer. Then they extrapolate these numbers and apply them to all or most patients of the practice, demanding huge payments in insurance fraud charges.

Our insurance fraud attorneys have successfully represented several physicians and medical practices in cases like these, achieving excellent results. We recommend that healthcare practitioners audited by any carrier speak with a professional team in our New York NY law offices who understand insurance law. Speak with experienced insurance fraud and defense lawyers before submitting documents to insurance fraud investigators and auditors.

In healthcare fraud cases involving healthcare insurance, especially if government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare are involved, regular audits often turn into full-scale criminal investigations that can jeopardize the practitioner’s ability to practice. It’s in your best interest to speak to our New York criminal defense law office for legal representation before discussing the insurance fraud case with the auditors.

Under the New York Penal Code, insurance fraud can be anything from a Class A Misdemeanor to a Class B Felony. Insurance fraud penalties depend on how much money the insurance carrier lost due to the crime. A conviction can result in prison time in more severe cases involving large amounts of money. You are likely to be deported if you are not a US citizen and the claim is over $10,000. Even if the claim is smaller, you can be deported because insurance fraud is a crime of moral turpitude.

In New York, insurance fraud penalties can be a Class A misdemeanor with up to 1 year in jail and up to $1,000 in fines, or a felony, depending on the circumstances of the case. With felony charges, it depends on the scale of the crime, with insurance fraud charges ranging from a Class E felony to a Class B felony.

Anyone under investigation for related criminal offenses in New York should contact an experienced New York insurance fraud lawyer as soon as they find out they are being targeted. Our NYC criminal attorneys are here to help with all related matters. Call our insurance fraud defense law offices today to set up an immediate confidential consultation.

The first thing to remember is not to speak with investigators. If they come to you with questions, you can assume they already know most of the answers. Don’t make it worse by making statements that will incriminate you. Besides, it won’t even help you to “spill” everything to the investigators. The way to handle it is to ask for the investigator’s contact information and tell them (politely but firmly) that you will speak with your New York attorney first, and the criminal defense attorney will get back to them.

We’ve had countless cases where we intervened on behalf of our clients early in the process and were able to prevent arrest and prosecution. There were so many criminal defense cases where our clients were already arrested, but the outcome was much better than it could have been.

Such insurance fraud defense investigations take months to develop. If you handle this right, there can be plenty of time to solve the problem before it’s too late. If you have any questions concerning insurance-related matters in New York, call our experienced New York City criminal defense attorney and insurance fraud lawyer at (212) 577 6677 to set up an immediate consultation.