S.A. doctor says insurance companies labeled him a criminal
His amended pleading comes extra than 8 months following the insurers sued him and his medical observe for allegedly undertaking pointless and highly-priced spinal surgeries and other techniques on sufferers wounded in auto accidents to inflate the price of their insurance policy claims. He has denied the allegations in the go well with submitted in federal court in San Antonio.
In their brings about of action, the insurers cite a federal legislation typically involved with prosecutions of mob bosses — the Racketeer Affected and Corrupt Corporations Act, or RICO.
Distributing fraudulent charges by means of the U.S. mail quantities to a “pattern of racketeering activity” intended to defraud the insurers, they alleged in their July complaint.
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The Texas Clinical Board site shows Misra, who has been accredited for a few decades, has no legal historical past and no disciplinary steps in opposition to him.
The insurers are applying their lawsuit to “squeeze” him — “a effectively-regarded health practitioner and professional witness” — “out of enterprise to restrict how considerably Condition Farm has and likely will pay in the future to thoroughly settle and litigate statements,” Misra suggests in his countersuit.
They also are hoping to recoup money from authorized instances formerly settled and/or litigated with 335 individuals Misra treated for neck and/or back again pain, he states. The corporations say they paid out more than $6.5 million to settle promises.
“State Farm is engaging in a concerted litigation tactic designed to harass, intimidate and dissuade physicians like (Misra) from managing automobile accident victims who assert claims against people insured by Condition Farm,” Misra’s countersuit states.
He advised or carried out spinal injections on the patients, with about 50 {a652ac39cb023ff8fd1cc85f4393f5b1bb70bf2f880b7bee35f712e4bd8633f7} recommended to go through spinal surgical procedure, the insurers allege. When the injections really don’t solve patients’ grievances, they say, the doctor endorses “expensive, medically unnecessary surgeries” that charge far more than $50,000.
In the course of a courtroom listening to in the scenario previous thirty day period, Condition Farm lawyer Jared Heck told a decide what Misra allegedly mentioned when a patient advised him that they didn’t want an injection.
The health practitioner “told them, ‘No shot, no income,’ ” Heck stated in the course of the listening to before U.S. Magistrate Choose Henry Bemporad.
The statement drew an speedy objection from Ricardo Cedillo, a attorney for Misra. Cedillo named the statement an “unsubstantiated allegation.”
“I glimpse extremely significantly forward to confronting the individual who reported it, and I can convey to you it’s heading to be a display since I know I can discredit that individual,” Cedillo stated to the decide.
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In his countersuit, Misra says the insurers “improperly miscast” their “underlying clinical legal responsibility statements as a RICO action.”
The insurers sued less than a 7 days just after they been given an adverse verdict in a case made a decision by a Bexar County jury, he suggests. The plaintiff who prevailed was a Misra affected person. The health care provider also testified about the patient’s procedure. The plaintiff was amongst those people determined in court exhibits that are portion of the insurers’ criticism, he notes in his countersuit.
Misra’s statements against the insurers are for carelessness and “tortious interference with possible organization relations.” In his authentic motion, he also sued for defamation and enterprise disparagement. He and his follow had endured “a downturn of small business opportunities” for the reason that of “State Farm’s smear marketing campaign.” It couldn’t be established why individuals claims ended up dropped.
Cedillo could not be achieved Friday but beforehand declined to comment on the original countersuit after its submitting final month.
The Point out Farm companies “look ahead to building our circumstance in courtroom,” a spokesman has said.
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