Doctors Arrested for Exaggerating Patient Injuries

Police have arrested a ring of doctors in Manhattan who allegedly collaborated to help stage fake car accidents and exaggerate patient injuries to bilk the medical insurance industry of more than $6.2 million.

The ring allegedly recruited people who had only minor injuries from car accidents and put them through a litany of medical tests in order to charge insurance companies for more money. Patients were paid to exaggerate injuries, police said, and occasionally members of the group known as "runners" purposefully set up car accidents in order to persuade the victims to come into the office, according to police.

The doctors, among them a licensed neurologist, a chiropractor, two general practitioners, and two acupuncturists, worked out of a fake medical office in Washington Heights.

Police used undercover officers who posed as accident victims in order to infiltrate the operation. The Manhattan district attorney's office said 11 people had been indicted yesterday and charged with enterprise corruption and other offenses.

The alleged leader of the operation, a layman, was identified as Gregory Vinarsky. Doctors included Aron Goldman, of the Upper East Side, Chantal Hilaire, of Rockville Center, and Roman Tabakman, of Fort Lee, N.J.