3 Workers At Clinic Accused Of Fraud

By GUY BOULTON
Published: Feb 21, 2004

State investigators raided a Tampa medical clinic Friday, seizing records and arresting three people on insurance fraud charges.

The state alleges that the owners of Medical Rehabilitation Center, 3430 W. Lambright St., solicited people involved in automobile accidents and then billed insurance companies for services that were not performed.

"We estimate that a thousand dollars a day came through this clinic in fraud," said Lt. Ira Warder, who oversees the Tampa office of the Fraud Division of the Department of Financial Services.

The three men arrested were Lev Vybinov, 53, of Tampa; Boris Pismichenko, 50, of Monmouth Junction, N.J.; and Greg Morkhalyov, 48, of New York City.

They were charged with an organized scheme to defraud, insurance fraud and grand theft, the division said. The three were booked into Hillsborough County Jail. Bail was set at $30,000 each.

Investigators say the clinic was engaged in personal injury protection fraud, a type of insurance fraud widespread in the New York area and South Florida.

Recent insurance fraud arrests in New York have linked the scheme to crime organizations dominated by Russian immigrants.

Under Florida law, someone involved in an auto accident has $10,000 of personal injury protection, entitling him or her to that much in medical treatment.

"It's a $10,000 window of opportunity for the bad guys," Warder said.

The schemes typically work this way: Medical clinics pay "runners" to solicit people who have been in auto accidents. The clinic then bills insurers for medical care that was either not provided or unnecessary.

"The ambulances don't show up. They don't go the hospital," Warder said. "They just end up going to this clinic about three weeks later."

Investigators think Medical Rehabilitation Center was paying runners as much as $1,500 for patients steered to the clinic, Warder said. In addition, the clinic paid some people $100 to visit

The clinic, which employed a chiropractor and two unlicensed massage therapists, billed automobile insurance companies for chiropractor treatments, massage therapy, and treatments such as electrical stimulation and hot-and- cold packs.

Warder said additional arrests are expected.

"At this particular clinic, there was information that every patient had to get an MRI at a certain clinic," Warder said. "There's an assumption that there's a kickback scheme."

The arrests were made after a four-month investigation by the Fraud Division, the FBI and the economic fraud unit of the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office. Geico Insurance Co. also assisted in the investigation.

Insurance fraud adds an estimated $240 to the average Florida family's auto insurance premiums, said Thomas Gallagher, chief financial officer for the Department of Financial Services.

Robert Hartwig, chief economist with the Insurance Information Institute, estimates this type of fraud adds more than $1 billion a year to the cost of auto insurance in states with no-fault insurance.