At a surgical clinic in the California desert, more than a mirage was labeled “medically necessary” on paperwork. The explanation given to the insurance company was as false as a breast transplanted into dozens of patients.
A former managing director of the Morrow Institute Clinic pleaded guilty to a medical fraud plot in the U.S. District Court on Friday and charged insurance companies $ 25-65 million for mere cosmetic procedures between 2007 and 2011. .. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Linda Morrow, 69, was arrested in Israel with her husband, Dr. David Morrow. After they were charged, they fled the country in a case of recruiting patients (mostly civil servants) with excellent insurance policies available.
The deal was too good to refuse for anyone trying to straighten their abdomen, make their nose smaller, or inflate their chest.
Free liposuction, nasal work, breast augmentation and vaginal rejuvenation if the patient helps interfere with paperwork by signing a letter of “testimony” or a declaration with a false statement I was promised.
Tummy tack was documented as a hernia repair or abdominal reconstruction. Nasal work was recorded as a correction of septum deviation. The job of the breast was probably to correct the “deformation of the nodular breast”.
Linda Morrow admitted that she had instructed her employees to draft false documents, the prosecutor said. According to court documents, other documents have been modified to cover the true purpose of the surgery.
Some patients were even paid cash as an incentive, while others did not have to pay large amounts of co-insurance.
One patient, listed in court documents, said he received cash in exchange for several procedures claimed for insurance of nearly $ 1 million.
In 2009, a woman went to Rancho Mirage’s Morrow Medical Surgery Center for the procedures described in the documents needed to reconstruct a breast deformity. In fact, she had breast augmentation surgery.
According to prosecutors, patients were often pressured to receive multiple treatments they did not seek in exchange for the improvements they were seeking so that Morrow could make more money.
According to court documents, “If we do a nose job, we can offer you a chest, or we can offer you abdominoplasty,” David Morrow said. Said.
Major insurance companies such as Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and Cigna Health Insurance were listed as victims, but the local school district was scammed by more than $ 15 million.
Court documents refer to an assistant vice-principal who underwent wrap band surgery for weight loss and a school counselor who underwent nasal work and breast augmentation.
A spokesperson for Desert Sands and the Palm Springs Unified School District did not return a message asking for comment.
77-year-old David Morrow, who fled the country with his wife in 2017 after pleading guilty, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was stripped of his license as a plastic surgeon.
Judge Josephine Staton said at the time of the decision, David Morrow had “completely ignored” the patient’s well-being and his “greed was endless.” She found that the intended loss of Morrow’s plan was over $ 44 million.
Linda Morrow, who pleaded guilty to despising being a fugitive, will be sentenced on July 1.
Defendant lawyer Kate Corrigan said he expects clients to have time to go to jail, but expects them to be tailored to age, personal history, and other considerations.
“MS. Morrow looks forward to putting this tough chapter of her life behind her,” Corrigan said. “She is looking forward to being with her children again.”
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