Menu Close

Tag: 2015 News

Privette Doctrine Precludes Injured Worker Tort Claim

WorkCompAcademy

Janice Williams-Foreman broke her ankle when she slipped and fell at an oil refinery owned by ConocoPhillips Company. She was an employee of TIMEC Company, Inc. (TIMEC), which was hired by ConocoPhillips as an independent contractor, and was injured in the course and scope of her employment with TIMEC. Williams recovered workers’ compensation for her injury from TIMEC and sued ConocoPhillips on claims of negligence and premises liability.

She was employed by TIMEC as a general helper and safety attendant. Her duties included watching for fire. She never dealt directly with ConocoPhillips personnel, receiving all job assignments, instructions and tools from TIMEC. On May 13, 2012, Williams-Sample was walking from a ConocoPhillips administrative office trailer to a nearby permit shack to drop off paperwork when she slipped and fell near the trailer, breaking her ankle.The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of ConocoPhillips and Williams appealed. The Court of Appeal sustained the dismissal in the unpublshed case of Foreman v ConocoPhillips.

Employees of independent contractors injured in the workplace cannot sue the party that hired the contractor to do the work absent exceptional circumstances defined in the “Privette” doctrine. (Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 689 (Privette).) The trial court found no exceptions to the Privette rule applicable on the evidence presented.

There remains a limited basis for a contractor’s employee to seek recovery of tort damages from the contractor’s hirer. An employee of a contractor may recover from the hirer of the contractor where the hirer retains control over the work performed by the contractor and “exercised the control that was retained in a manner that affirmatively contributed to the injury of the contractor’s employee.”

Mere retention of the ability to control safety conditions is not enough. A general contractor owes no duty of care to an employee of a subcontractor to prevent or correct unsafe procedures or practices to which the contractor did not contribute by direction, induced reliance, or other affirmative conduct.

View More

Carriers Plan to “Ramp Up” Comp Business

WorkCompAcademy

The Golden State’s $16.5 billion workers’ compensation marketplace is stubbornly showing signs of recovery as a result of reform measures introduced through the enactment of Senate Bill 863 two years ago. The controversial legislation overhauled the state’s huge workers’ compensation system by creating a $120 million return-to-work fund, establishing an independent medical review board, revising the permanent disability rules and adding a controversial provision barring temporary staffing agencies from self-insuring for workers’ compensation.

This last provision was in the news again this month, when Irvine-based Kimco Staffing Services, one of California’s largest temporary staffing agencies, ended its costly legal battle to overturn a Court of Appeals ruling in May over its right to self-insure for workers’ compensation.

A report in PropertyCasualty 360 says the company is ” not going to appeal it to the state Supreme Court.” the Kimco Chief Executive Officer, said. Kimco had spent about $700,000 in legal fees in a bid to overturn a portion of SB 863 that prohibits staffing companies to self-insure.

The state Appeals Court sided with the state legislators in passing SB 863 because of the nature of the staffing industry in which workers can be inadequately covered for workers’ compensation claims. The court noted self-insurance deposits would not be quickly adjusted until the following year.

Kimco, for its part, has already moved on, placing its workers’ compensation coverage with Zurich Insurance Co.

In addition to Zurich Insurance, a number of other workers’ compensation insurers such as the State Compensation Insurance Fund, Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Co., American International Group, CNA Insurance Co., and CompWest Insurance Co. have all said they plan to ramp up their California workers’ compensation businesses in 2015.

This is in part due rising employer payrolls in the state, triggered by the recovering economy, and in part to SB 863 itself, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2013. In fact, a Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) study released in April found that the reform legislation reduced California medical payments per claim by 5% in 2013 for claims with 12 months of experience.

The State Compensation Insurance Fund needs to increase rates if it wants to lower its 143.2% combined loss ratio in 2014, which was an increase from the 127.5% combined ratio in 2013. An injection of $250 million to bolster reserves served as a key factor in the fund’s operating expenses in 2014.

But that said, the verdict is still out whether SB 863 is improving or worsening the state’s workers’ compensation marketplace. “It’s too early to tell if SB 863 has made any positive improvements to the state’s workers’ compensation environment,” said Bryan Bogardus, president of California-based CompWest Insurance Co., a growing workers’ compensation carrier. He predicts that, by 2017, CompWest and other insurers will know if the workers’ compensation reform legislation improved the marketplace for insurers and insureds. If that happens, Bogardus said, CompWest plans to boost premium volume by hiring four business development consultants to assist producers submit more business in the carrier’s four target areas: healthcare, hospitality, professional services and manufacturing.

While California’s huge workers’ compensation market shows signs of eroding the 105% combined ratio that the 238 carriers collectively compiled in 2014, it will be a tough road to reach underwriting profitability anytime soon. The combined ratio marked the seventh consecutive year that the state’s workers’ compensation market had a combined ratio above 100%.

View More

Flight Attendants Allege “Dirty Little Secret” Makes Them Sick

WorkCompAcademy

Boeing knows that its airplane cabins can become filled with toxic air, but refuses to do anything about it, four flight attendants claim in court. Vanessa Woods, Faye Oskardottir, Darlene Ramirez and Karen Neben, along with her husband Nathan, sued Boeing in Cook County after becoming sick while working a flight on one of its planes, leaving them with lifelong medical problems.

In 2013 the plaintiffs were working on a Boeing 737, manufactured in 2012, over several flights with Alaska Airlines, the last of which was from Boston to San Diego. Shortly after takeoff, the plaintiffs say the crew noticed a funny smell in the cabin and the four flight attendants started to fill ill, including dizziness and vomiting. Oskardottir fainted and needed assistance from medical professionals who were passengers on the plane. After landing in Chicago the plaintiffs were treated at Resurrection Medical Center for “symptoms…consistent with hydrocarbon exposure,” the lawsuit states. The plaintiffs claim they still experience symptoms ranging from numbness and tingling, vertigo, extreme fatigue and blurred vision to memory loss, anxiety and depression.” The lawsuit cites numerous examples of similar incidents involving pilots, crew members and passengers.

The plaintiffs say in the complaint that they are exposing “a previously hidden and ‘dirty little secret’ of the commercial airline industry.” The air on all but one of Boeing’s airplanes is pumped through the engines into the cabin, known as a bleed air system, allowing the possibility for it to “become contaminated with heated jet engine oil and its toxic by-products” if there is a leak.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, points to a 1955 study done by the Aero Medical Laboratory showing that inhaling heated oil can damage the brain, liver, kidneys and cause death.It is now known that the chemical by-products from engine oil include “neurotoxins such as organophosphates” that are used in pesticides and nerve gases and were banned for residential use in 2001 by the Environmental Protection Agency, the complaint states. Inhaling them “can cause short-term or transient symptoms as well as permanent and serious personal injury.”

According to the lawsuit, Boeing has been “put on notice more than 40 times” over the past 60 years “that its aircraft was unreasonably dangerous but failed to rectify the flawed design.” In 1953 the company first recognized that heated engine oil could contaminate the air with dangerous chemicals but “alarmingly, to this day, Boeing has never met its…objective to fully identify the contaminants present in cabin air after a fume event,” the complaint states. That same year Boeing was working on a filter system to clean the air but it was never implemented, the plaintiffs say, and air quality sensors are still not used either.

The plaintiffs seek damages for strict liability, negligence and fraud. The plaintiffs are represented by Power Rogers and Smith PC in Chicago, LittlepageBooth in Houston, TX and Friedman Rubin and Brodkowitz Law in Washington.

View More

Tree Trimming Company Faces Six Felony Counts

WorkCompAcademy

The Palm Desert Patch reports that the owner of a Thousand Palms landscaping company cheated insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a fraud scheme rooted in the misclassification of workers, a prosecutor said Thursday, but the defendant’s attorney argued his client was a gardener, not a bookkeeper, and had no hand in manipulating figures.

“This defendant had office managers and brokers signing off on paperwork so that if he got caught, he could say, ‘It was an accident, a mistake,”’ Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Frank Donzanti said in his opening statement in the trial of Jesse Garcia Contreras. “All the while, he was continuing this scam and not playing by the rules.”

Contreras, 59, of Indio is charged with six felony counts of workers’ compensation insurance fraud that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars. Prosecutors allege he ripped off five companies to the tune of $611,960. Donzanti outlined a case pointing to willful deception, perpetrated year after year. According to the prosecutor, Contreras became the co-proprietor of Sunshine Landscape in 2001, handling all administrative functions. Donzanti alleged that Contreras was trying to find ways early on to save on payroll, eventually finding the means by lying about his employees’ functions.

“The key to success was, don’t tell the insurance companies you have tree trimmers on the job,” the prosecutor said. “The workers comp premiums for tree trimmers are triple what they are for general landscapers. Tree trimmers work at altitude They can fall, crack their head open or break their neck.”

According to Donzanti, from 2008 to 2013, Contreras “hid the fact” that he had tree trimmers in the field by changing the human resources codes assigned to employees and ultimately reported to the state, as well as the insurance companies. “There was no disclosure of tree trimmers,” he said. “And when there were red flags raised and year-end audits coming, guess what — the defendant switched to a different insurance carrier.”

Donzanti said holding down overhead by intentionally misclassifying his workforce afforded Contreras the opportunity to “outbid other landscapers playing by the rules,” assuring Sunshine Landscape would get lucrative contracts from Coachella Valley homeowners’ associations.

Defense attorney Jeff Moore characterized the government’s case as based on misplaced “assumptions” and confusion over business practices. Moore took jurors through a lengthy explanation of Sunshine Landscape’s history and his client’s duties, noting that Contreras was “in charge of field operations,” not accounting.

“He was not the insurance procurer,” Moore said. “He was the guy who went out and got the contracts.” According to the attorney, Contreras had worked for Sunshine nearly three decades as a gardener before he got together with two other men — Santos Alvarado and Richard Calhoun — to buy the company in 2001 from desert businessman Robert Lee Sandifer. The trio did business as Sunshine Landscape but were incorporated as CAC.

The firms allegedly victimized were the State Compensation Insurance Fund, CastlePoint Insurance, Liberty Insurance, Lumberman’s Insurance and Zenith Insurance.

View More

Former San Diego Physician Convicted of Forging Doctors Signatures

WorkCompAcademy

The owner of multiple marijuana clinics admitted Wednesday to forging a doctor’s signature and fraudulently using the doctor’s name and license number to write fake medical marijuana prescriptions. The 72-year-old man, Nelson Leone, will be sentenced September 14, 2015. He faces up to a $250,000 fine and five years in prison.

Prosecutors stated that Leone operated six clinics under the name Green Cross Evaluations throughout San Diego, including locations on Park Boulevard, Mission Valley, Sports Arena, and Pacific Beach. The former doctor purchased advertising touting the clinic’s customer service and amenities such as on-site ATMs, walk-in services, and discounted rates for first-time patients. In the ads he made it clear that his clinics were “consumer friendly.” He also advertised the his clinics offered access to a “licensed physician.”

According to prosecutors, five of the six clinics did not have a licensed doctor on staff. He employed Dr. Arnold Kaplan, a licensed physician, at one of his clinics to meet with customers and issue medical marijuana recommendations. Without Kaplan’s knowledge, Leone also issued medical marijuana recommendations at his five other clinics using Kaplan’s signature and physician license number. Those recommendations falsely stated that the patient was evaluated and suffered from a condition that “may benefit from the use of medical marijuana.”

Leone agreed to shut down all six of his clinics as part of his plea.

Leone was once licensed as a physician in California in 1973. He practiced as a psychiatrist in San Diego for 20 years when misconduct charges were filed against him by four of his former patients. After 38 days of administrative hearings, the Administrative Law Judge recommended that his license be revoked in 1995 for gross negligence, dishonesty, excessive prescribing practices, and aiding and abetting another in the unlicensed practice of psychology. In 2008 he filed a Petition for Penalty Relief claiming he had rehabilitated himself.  The Office of the Attorney General recommended against granting the petition arguing that Leone’s testimony was full of distortion, misrepresentation, and outright fabrication. After a hearing, the Administrative Law Judge denied his Petition in February 2012.

View More

Prescription Costs Per Claim Increased 7.4% in 2014

WorkCompAcademy

While the average cost per workers compensation claim increased in 2014, the number of prescriptions per injured worker and the average morphine equivalent dose per script declined, Coventry Workers’ Comp Services said Tuesday.

In 2014 the significant increase in generic AWP was the primary driver of increased prescription cost per claim. The most heavily impacted drug classes include narcotics, NSAIDs, and muscle relaxants.

Meanwhile, the number of prescriptions per injured worker decreased 5%, narcotic utilization decreased 7.4% and the average morphine equivalent dose per script decreased 4.5%, according to the analysis. Medications with the most significant decreases were hydrocdone-acetaminophen (Vicodin®) and oxycodoneacetaminophen (Percocet®), both narcotics. The rescheduling of hydrocodone combination products from a Schedule III drug to a Schedule II drug in 2014 contributed to the decline in utilization. Vicodin®, the #1 prescribed medication had the largest decrease in utilization over the last three years with a 7.8% decrease.

The number of prescriptions increases as the claim ages, typically driven by adjuvant therapies such as anticonvulsants and antidepressants that support pain management and lessen narcotic burden.

Generic utilization increased 5.9% to 82% last year, according to the analysis. But the inflated AWP drove up costs of frequently prescribed generic medications, resulting in an increased prescription cost per claim. The impact of this year’s inflated AWP has been noted throughout the report. The release of generic Cymbalta® in 2013 drove the significant reduction in spend for antidepressants

According to Coventry, compound drugs accounted for 7.7% of all managed drug spending and 28.1% of all unmanaged drug spending in 2014, up from 4.5% and 20.1%, respectively, in 2013. “The rising use of compound medications in workers compensation has created greater risks to injured worker safety and has become a cost burden on the system,” the analysis states. Despite direction from medical guidelines, compound utilization as a primary line of therapy continued to grow. In addition,new formulations were being used to target gaps in medical guidelines and formularies. In California the percentage of workers receiving compounded drugs in unmanaged cases was around 10%, and in managed cases 2%.

More states are adopting closed formularies in an effort to control pharmacy cost and utilization. Three states have already taken steps to introduce workers’ compensation closed formularies in 2015: Arkansas, Tennessee, and California. If adopted, the total number of states with implemented closed formularies and/or “preferred drug lists” will be eight.

It’s no secret that workers’ compensation patients are frequently being prescribed narcotics and other medications that can create risk for dependence and misuse. Urine Drug Monitoring (UDM) is a clinical decision-support tool that can help reduce these risks, ensure compliance with the prescribed drug regimen, and promote patient safety. However, incorporating UDM into the narcotic management of injured workers has not been an easy task for payors. Many of the medical treatment guidelines commonly referenced in workers’ compensation do not provide enough detail or have conflicting recommendations concerning the frequency or type of testing.

View More

JAMA Publishes a Review of Cannabinoids for Medical Use

WorkCompAcademy

Injured workers are now a step closer to obtaining marijuana for their injuries after the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article that says moderate – or high-quality scientific medical evidence supports the use of marijuana for some medical conditions, but not for others, according to a fresh review of past research. After reviewing 80 randomized trials that included nearly 6,500 people, researchers found moderate support for using marijuana to treat chronic pain and muscle spasms and involuntary movements. The evidence wasn’t as strong to support marijuana’s use for nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, sleep disorders, HIV-related weight loss and Tourette syndrome.

The summary in Reuters Health continues to say that any benefits of marijuana or cannabis use must be weighed against the risk of side effects, which include dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, sleepiness and euphoria, according to the study’s lead author. “Individuals considering cannabinoids as a possible treatment for their symptoms should discuss the potential benefits and harms with their doctor,” said Penny Whiting of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. She also told Reuters Health by email that other reviews of medical marijuana suggest prolonged use may be tied to an increased risk of psychosis.

The new review, which is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), was commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. The researchers searched medical databases for past randomized controlled trials, which are considered the “gold standard” of medical research. While the researchers found that most trials suggested some improvements in symptoms for the various conditions, not all could suggest the improvement wasn’t just due to chance.

“As systematic reviewers, we have provided a summary of the available evidence which doctors can now use to make decisions regarding whether to prescribe cannabinoids for their patients,” Whiting said.

A second review published in the same journal by Dr. Kevin Hill of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, found similar results. In that review, Hill found high-quality evidence to support the use of marijuana in people with chronic or neuropathic (nerve) pain, and muscle problems related to multiple sclerosis.

“The two reviews have reached similar conclusions, that while there is some evidence to support the use of marijuana for certain conditions . . . for many of the other conditions that various U.S. states have approved medical marijuana, the evidence is of low quality,” said Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza of Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

“If the primary process by which medications are approved for ‘medical’ use in the U.S. is the (Food and Drug Administration) approval process, then the evidence for many conditions does not meet the existing threshold of evidence,” said D’Souza, who co-authored an editorial accompanying the new reviews.

In another study in the same journal, researchers found poor labeling on medical marijuana. Of 75 edible marijuana products purchased in three metropolitan U.S. areas, less than one in five were labeled correctly, according to Ryan Vandrey of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and colleagues. They found the vast majority of products contained more or less of the active ingredients than the label indicated.

Despite some scientific evidence that might get an injured worker’s foot in the door of the UR/IMR process, there remains formidable obstacles before the floodgates are opened in workers’ compensation claim departments. Cannabinoids remain illegal under federal law. Additionally, California Health and Safety code 11362.785(d) says that “nothing in this article (Medical Marijuana Program) shall require… any .. health insurance provider to be liable… for the medical use of marijuana. The WCAB used this provision to support a denial of medical marijuana in the case of Cockrell v Farmers Insurance (March 2013). With that being said, claimants are just a legislative pen stroke away from claiming this as a benefit.

View More

Juliann Sum Confirmed to Head Cal/OSHA

WorkCompAcademy

The California Senate voted unanimously Monday to confirm Juliann Sum as Chief of the Department of Industrial Relation’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (also known as Cal/OSHA). The Senate also voted unanimously Monday to confirm Art R. Carter as chairperson of the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board (OSHAB). As Cal/OSHA Chief, Sum oversees programs that protect over 18 million workers from health hazards in almost every workplace in California.

Sum began serving as Acting Chief of Cal/OSHA in September 2013, and just over a year later, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed her as Chief. Sum joined DIR in 2012 as special advisor to Director Christine Baker.

“Juliann’s track record at the DIR and with Cal/OSHA demonstrates her strong commitment to workplace safety,” Baker said. Sum’s extensive experience also includes work as a project director with the University of California, Berkeley, associate attorney with the Environmental Law Foundation, litigation associate with Carroll, Burdick and McDonough, and industrial hygienist and business representative with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245.

Sum earned a Juris Doctor degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, a Master of Science degree in environmental health sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science degree in biophysics from Brown University.

Art Carter was first appointed to OSHAB by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. OSHAB resolves appeals from private and public-sector employers regarding citations issued by Cal/OSHA for alleged violations of workplace safety laws.

Governor Brown appointed Carter board chair in 2011. Previously, Carter owned and served as the legislative advocate for Art Carter and Associates from 1984 to 2004. From 1976 to 1983, he served as chief of Cal/OSHA.

View More

WCIRB Recaps Annual Conference

WorkCompAcademy

Perspectives on the WCIRB’s 100 year history and its future, success stories from an innovative self-insured employer, and a glimpse at some of the issues that will likely shape the workers’ compensation debate in the years to come are among the highlights of the WCIRB’s Annual Workers’ Compensation Conference held in San Francisco on Thursday, June 11, 2015.

This year’s conference placed special emphasis on the integral role that the WCIRB has played in the workers’ compensation system since its founding in 1915. As part of his welcome message to conference attendees, WCIRB President and CEO Bill Mudge reflected on the organization’s century of service to the California workers’ compensation community and highlighted recent initiatives that have transformed the WCIRB into a more modern enterprise and one that exemplifies its centennial motto of “100 Years Young.”

Watch the Video: The WCIRB: 100 Years Young (12 minutes) Bill Mudge, President and CEO, WCIRB.

This year’s featured guest was California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones who provided a regulator’s perspective on the California workers’ compensation system and commented on the positive working relationship between the California Department of Insurance and the WCIRB.

Bill Zachry, VP of Risk Management for Safeway Inc. shared some success stories from his work at Safeway – a large self-insured employer with over 2,400 locations and 250,000 employees throughout the United States. In his presentation, Mr. Zachry detailed a number of strategies used by Safeway to lower its cost of workers’ compensation by 40% compared to the overall industry average.

Watch the Video: Insights from an Innovative Self Insurer (42 minutes) – Bill Zachry, VP of Risk Management, Safeway Inc.

Dave Bellusci, the WCIRB’s EVP and chief actuary delivered his presentation in two parts. The first provided an overview of the 100 year old California workers’ compensation system in terms of premiums and market share, claim frequency and severity, overall industry results and SB 863 cost monitoring. In the second half, he compared California to the rest of the country and delved into some of the factors that contribute to California being a high cost workers’ compensation state such as higher permanent disability claim frequency, higher medical costs late in the life of a claim and high benefit delivery costs.

Part I: California Workers’ Compensation System at 100 Years: A WCIRB Perspective. Part II: How Do We Rate? Dave Bellusci, EVP and Chief Actuary, WCIRB

To close the conference, Bill Mudge moderated a panel discussion titled The Beat on the Street: What is Happening Next in California Workers’ Compensation that included representatives from the insurer, medical provider, employer, and legal communities. The wide range of discussion explored issues including medical provider fraud and potential ways in which insurers and medical provider networks can play a role in reducing it; the factors that influence whether an injured worker seeks representation; the incentives that exist in the workers’ compensation system that drive unwanted behaviors; friction forces that drive costs and potentially delay benefit delivery; and the improved outcomes that are possible through proactive, empathetic communication between claims staff and injured workers.

The WCIRB Annual Workers’ Compensation Conference is held each year in June in Northern California. Attendees include senior executives from WCIRB member companies and other California workers’ compensation system stakeholders. Attendance is by invitation only.

View More

24 Count Indictment Filed Against El Centro Medical Clinic

WorkCompAcademy

A 24-count federal indictment has been filed against four defendants for a conspiracy to unlawfully enrich themselves with millions of dollars by submitting fraudulent claims for tests allegedly performed at the El Centro Medical Clinic in El Centro, California

The indictment alleges that defendants Paul Robinson, Levon Tovmassian, Hasmik Senekerimyan, and Nazar Muradyan, conspired with Gevorg Kupelian and others to commit health care fraud and pay kickbacks for Medicare patient referrals. Kupelian – who already pleaded guilty and was sentenced in a related case — opened the El Centro Clinic and acted as its organizer and leader. He has admitted he recruited a doctor to serve as a “front” for the Clinic in order to use his Medicare billing number to submit fraudulent Medicare claims. Kupelian also admitted he recruited and paid “cappers” to find senior citizens in El Centro and convince them to go to the Clinic for a gauntlet of tests without justification or proper supervision by a physician.

The indictment alleges that Robinson, a licensed physician, acted as the nominal owner of the El Centro Clinic and that the conspirators submitted claims for the treatment of more than 1,100 Medicare beneficiaries under Robinson’s Medicare billing number between September 2012 and February 2014. The El Centro Clinic generated over $2.7 million in claims to Medicare, which resulted in payments of approximately $1.3 million to Robinson. Robinson is accused of paying 75% of the Medicare reimbursements to Kupelian. Kupelian, in turn, paid Tovmassian, Senekerimyan, Muradyan, and others for various activities and claims designed to make the Clinic appear to be a legitimate medical service provider. Robinson is also charged with obstructing a federal audit by submitting falsified and misleading medical records.

Tovmassian, the indictment alleges, was hired to pose as a Physician’s Assistant who saw and treated patients at the Clinic despite not having the requisite license from the State of California. Tovmassian also allegedly ordered unnecessary medical tests that were billed to Medicare under Robinson’s billing number. Additionally, Tovmassian is charged with making a false statement to one of the investigating agents.

Senekerimyan is accused of completing fraudulent allergy test order forms and falsely claiming to administer allergy tests at the El Centro Clinic. Her husband, Muradyan, is charged with falsely claiming to drive Senekerimyan from their home in North Hollywood, California to the El Centro Clinic several times a week for her to administer allergy tests when, in fact, no tests were ever performed. Senekerimyan and Muradyan are also charged with obstructing a health care crime investigation.

On April 6, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Bashant sentenced Kupelian to 30 months’ of custody and ordered he pay restitution in the amount of $964,011. Kupelian is currently scheduled to self-surrender on July 8, 2015. The defendants will be summoned to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo for an arraignment on the indictment.

View More