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An Orange County Grand Jury brought forward the Indictment against Ryan McCracken, the “hearing rep” or collections manager for Aspen Medical Resources in Anaheim, California; plus the three owners of Aspen Medical Resources:  Jeffrey Campau, Landen Mirallegro, and Abraham Khorshad.   The Indictment was brought before the Superior Court and affirmed on October 29th 2013.
 
It was initially sealed but then unsealed as public record on November 1st 2013.   An unsigned original draft of this Indictment has been obtained by adjustercom and is available here for download from the adjustercom server.
 
Ryan McCracken is not an owner of Aspen.   The three owners are Jeffrey Campau, who owns 25% of the company, Landen Mirallegro, who owns another 25% of the company, and Abraham Khorshad who owns 50%.   McCracken is only named in Count 1.   The three owners are named in all 49 counts.   These three owners started the company in 2005.
 
Included in the overt acts described in Count 1, the Aspen owners also used another company name of National DME.   They billed through this company and never revealed that within all practical perception National DME and Aspen Medical Resources were the same company.
 
Campau, Mirallegro, Khorshad, and McCracken are accused of Conspiracy to Commit Insurance Fraud.   They conspired to bill workers’ compensation insurance carriers, self-insureds, and TPAs numerous times for the same equipment rental.   The select machine they sent sales representatives out to get prescriptions for was a HOT/COLD unit they put forth and billed as two machines.  Because the workers’ compensation billing fee schedule and coding system lists two distinct machines as a Hot machine and a Cold machine, and not as a hybrid, they believed they were clever in presenting their hybrid Hot/Cold unit as two separate machines and consequently, double billing.

Campau, Mirallegro, and Khorshad also never gave the claims department payers the option to buy the machine at its regular retail price of just less than $250.   They only gave the option to rent the machine at highly inflated rental rates.
 
The sales persons earned commissions for each prescription procured.  They obtained prescriptions from doctors and chiropractors without specifying a length of use for the hot/cold unit. They sought multiple prescription extensions from the doctors’ offices in order to justify rentals of the hot/cold units for multiple months.
 
The insurance carriers, TPAs, and self-insureds allegedly defrauded, according to the Indictment are:
 
• The County of San Bernardino
• Fireman’s Fund
• Republic Indemnity
• American Claims Management
• Tristar and Centre Insurance
• CNA Insurance
• Hudson
• State Farm
• Sparta and York
• Gallagher Bassett (ACE, AIGRM, Old Republic Pennsylvania)
• Liberty Mutual
• The County of Riverside
• Employers
• Farmers
• Travelers
• First Comp Insurance
• State Compensation Insurance Fund
• Comp West
• Sentry
• Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies
• AIG
• Hartford Insurance Company
• Zenith Insurance Company
• United States Postal Service (USPS)
 
Jeff Campau, Landen Mirallegro, and Abraham Khorshad instructed their staff to file liens with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board for any unpaid balances for their claims.  Ryan McCracken received commissions for recovery on liens from Aspen and National DME until April of 2012.  He began working for Aspen and National DME in 2009. 

This case is back in the court room this morning in C-30 for the continuing arraignment.  It's scheduled, as well, for January 22nd 2014 in C-5. 

lonce@adjustercom.com; Lonce LaMon, journalist; all rights reserved; copyright © adjustercom