A GEICO expert has been cleared to testify in an insurance fraud case where a physician has been accused of improperly certifying certain healthcare services for payment.
The Alleged False Statements
Dr. Luis Mas is a family medicine specialist with a practice in Coral Gables, Florida. Government Employees Insurance Co., GEICO Indemnity Co., GEICO General Insurance Company, and GEICO Casualty Co. filed a suit against Dr. Mas, alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Florida Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Florida Civil Remedies for Criminal Practices Act, common law fraud, and unjust enrichment.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleged that Dr. Mas submitted thousands of fraudulent insurance charges, misrepresented coding levels on billing statements, and changed which medical provider administered treatment on the examination reports. The lawsuit claimed that unsupervised massage therapists and physical therapist assistants performed services that were billed as doctors.
The Daubert Motion
Government Employees Insurance Co., GEICO Indemnity Co., GEICO General Insurance Company, and GEICO Casualty Co. retained Dr. James Dillard to testify on their behalf.
Dr. Mas’s defense team filed a Daubert motion seeking to exclude Dr. Dillard’s testimony. They sought to exclude Dr. Dillard because his testimony could not be used to prove that Dr. Mas falsified any medical examinations or billing records. Instead, Dr. Dillard opined that healthcare providers committed fraud in three ways: (1) that Dr. Mas falsified his clinical judgment on the medical necessity of the treatment protocols, (2) that Dr. Mas and others falsified the examination results for the purpose of inflating medical bills, and (3) that the therapeutic care at each facility was performed without supervision. Dr. Mas’s attorneys argued that, under Florida law, opinions were not actionable for fraud and Dr. Dillard needed to instead rely on statements of fact to undermine Dr. Mas.
Government Employees Insurance Co., GEICO Indemnity Co., GEICO General Insurance Company, and GEICO Casualty Co. argued that Dr. Mas’s motion had no merit because it contained conclusory arguments and failed to question Dr. Dillard’s qualifications or helpfulness to the jury.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that even if Dr. Mas only gave a statement of opinion, he was a person with superior knowledge on the subject and he knew or should have known from the facts in his possession that the statement of opinion was false. Because of this, Dr. Mas fell under the exception to the Florida rule that an action for fraud generally may not be predicated on statements of opinion.
The district court noted that Dr. Mas’s motion had three weaknesses. First, it made the assumption that Dr. Mas rendered an opinion. Second, the motion “cherry-picked” portions of cases to support its reasoning. Third, it did not take into account that an exception could apply in this case. Based on the allegations and the evidence in Dr. Dillard’s report, an exception may apply because there is a factual dispute on Dr. Mas’s involvement with how the medical facilities handled treatment and billing records.
Accordingly, the district court denied the motion and allowed Dr. Dillard to testify.
