A Miami doctor is being called a real quack by authorities after she was allegedly caught on hidden camera paying patients to say she gave them treatment even if they were perfectly healthy.
Eileen Dvorkin, a North Miami Beach chiropractor, has been charged with fraud for allegedly billing insurance companies for services she never performed and patients she never really saw, police said.
A police informant wearing a hidden camera captured several of Dvorkin's backroom deals that appear to reveal a rarely seen look into the unscrupulous world of insurance fraud.
While talking to an undercover informant, Dvorkin laid out her scheme in a closet in her doctor's office, authorities allege. She would pay as much as $800 to patients who are willing to say they were in accidents that never really happened.
In one recording, Dvorkin tells the informant that he will get paid for every friend he refers who is willing to lie and help her make a profit.
"Let them know that's the story if it continues and we get everything worked out. There will be no problem whatsoever," Dvorkin said on the tape after talking about what she is willing to pay.
"I have no problem doing even better."
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Dvorkin, who has been a physician for 30 years, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
South Florida is the most notorious spot in the country for insurance fraud. More than $850 million in phony insurance claims have been filed across the state, according to the latest law enforcement statistics.
Many of them come from fake accident claims, which numbered more than 2,700 last year.
Experts estimate those false claims contribute to auto insurance bills being up by as much as $50 per person.
Authorities believe many of the deals go down much like the ones Dvorkin brokered.
Police claim the dirty doctor even kept her scheme a secret from her employees, who have not been implicated in the plot.
But all the while, Dvorkin assured the informant he would get paid if he just did what she said.
"You need to have a little faith," she said. "I'm not going to screw anybody over."
