A trash bin in Longwood, Fla. near Orlando has revealed boxes of medical records containing photographs, names, Social Security numbers and other personal information about chiropractic patients in Lawrence, Mass. treated by Prestige Pain Management and Physical Therapy. The records were discarded last month in an industrial park and discovered by someone who became suspicious and contacted local police.
Two investigators from Lawrence’s Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force went to the Longwood Police Department Monday to inspect the documents. Until 2003, Prestige operated a clinic for several years on the second floor of the Hampshire Building at 420 Common St.
“For us, it’s highly suspicious why eight large boxes of patient files marked ‘confidential’ would wind up in the garbage down in Florida, 1,500 miles away,” Lawrence police Chief John J. Romero told the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune.
“The people who found them knew they didn’t belong there and were quick to inform police. And it was obvious to the Longwood police that these documents could be of interest to us,” Romero said. “This could be very significant information that could assist us in our ongoing investigation into auto insurance fraud in Lawrence.”
Police said Prestige’s former president and only officer, Claudio A. Fernandez, lives near Longwood. Lawrence Detective Michael Simard, the task force’s lead investigator, and Kim Giardina, an assistant deputy chief for the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, attempted to find Fernandez to question him.
The boxes contain several hundred medical files of patients treated at the Lawrence and Hyde Park clinics between 2001 and 2003, according to Romero.
Simard and Giardina will sift through the records and bring some of the documents back to Lawrence, Romero said.
“We’ll analyze it and see if any of the information fits into anything we’re doing right now. If it does, we’ll take custody of all the files and make arrangements to secure them up here,” Romero told the Eagle-Tribune.
“In just skimming through the files, we noticed that a lot of the lawyers on the cases are lawyers who are known to us as lawyers who handle fraud cases. And we are already looking at some of these lawyers as part of our investigation,” Romero said.
In a telephone interview from Florida Monday night, Simard said that in checking the documents, he also recognized the names of “frequent fliers,” accident victims who have filed multiple insurance claims.
During the two years since the inception of the Lawrence auto fraud task force, 143 people have been charged with auto insurance fraud, including three lawyers and four chiropractors. The task force consists of Lawrence detectives working with investigators from the industry-funded Auto Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, the district attorney’s office, the attorney general’s office, and fraud investigators of several insurance companies doing business in the city.
After taking the records as potential evidence Oct. 19, Longwood detectives notified Lawrence police and told them it would cost about $800 to ship the documents.
Romero decided it would be cheaper to have investigators fly to Florida to inspect the records first.
“I can tell you there’s some helpful information that we’ve already come across,” Romero said.
“We don’t want to leave any stone unturned in addressing auto insurance fraud, even if it means tracking down information in Florida. I think this demonstrates the commitment of the task force,” he said.
Topics Florida Auto Fraud Law Enforcement
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