UPFRONT | Roundup ETHICS Take 5 Toronto DC facing insurance fraud charges Fraud charges have been laid against practitioners at a Toronto clinic, including a chiropractor, following an investigation into alleged fraudulent auto insurance injury claims. An Aviva Canada cus-tomer, who stepped forward after allegedly facing pres-sure to lie about accident injuries, prompted the in-vestigation. Aviva Canada subsequently provided To-ronto Police Service with video and other evidence that led to the charges. In video footage obtained by Aviva Canada, a chiro-practor and a clinic em-ployee from Wellness Cen-tres of Ontario in Toronto are shown explaining to two undercover investigators how they can work together to obtain insurance payouts – despite both investigators stating they are not hurt. The video footage also shows a paralegal from Kovtman Law explaining in great detail, how to obtain insurance payouts. The un-dercover investigator was told he would get a $10,000 insurance settlement in ap-proximately one year, of which $3,000 will be re-tained by the law office. Aviva Canada president and CEO Greg Somerville stated, “Fraud costs honest insurance customers ap-proximately $130 per year in Ontario and we continue to make every effort to stop it.” A shortened version of the video footage has been posted to Aviva Canada’s YouTube channel. Aviva Canada’s an-ti-fraud team worked closely 6 Canadian Chiropractor June 2016 with police detectives at Toronto’s 32 Division lead-ing up to arrests and charges for the following parties: • Edward Hayes (licensed chiropractor) – Fraud under $5,000 times three (one for each of the two undercover investigators and one for the Aviva Canada customer) • Michelle Osacenco (clinic employee) – Fraud under $5,000 times three (one for each of the two under-cover investigators and one for the Aviva Canada customer) • Anna Kovtanuka (parale-gal) – Fraud under $5,000 times two (one for each of the two undercover inves-tigators), and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000 All three accused were scheduled to appear in court last March 17. “Consumers need to know that we have an over $1 billion fraud insurance problem in Ontario. We are hopeful that this typical example will raise public awareness that this hurts everyone, and encourage consumers to speak up when they see fraudulent activity,” continued Somer-ville. Following the charges, Aviva Canada said it made formal complaints to the Financial Services Com-mission of Ontario, the College of Chiropractors of Ontario and the Law Soci-ety of Upper Canada. The company also notified the Insurance Bureau of Can-ada and all other major property and casualty insur-ers. NUMBER CRUNCHING Survey sneak peek Canadian DCs responded to the Canadian Chiropractor Market Survey, conducted between March and April this year. Here’s a sneak peek of the results. Watch for the full report in the July 2016 issue. 31.7% Percentage of Canadian DCs with solo practice Total qualified DCs who responded to the survey 632 Number of hours a week most chiropractors spend in clinical practice 21-40 Chiropractors with an active Facebook page for their clinics 60% www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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