Three employees of a Fort Myers chiropractor face charges of insurance fraud for billing insurance companies for office visits for a man who was in jail.

The three, Yariselys Hernandez , Luiz Hernandez and Caroline Sterling face insurance fraud charges.

Investigators in the case say that the three were billing insurance companies for services they did not provide. In one case, they billed an auto insurance company for visits even though records clearly showed that the man in jail and could not have possibly visited the doctor during that period.

Insurance fraud investigators said there is a rise in personal injury cases where unprincipled doctors and chiropractors trying to take advantage of insurance companies. The most common way to do this is by hiring people to stage accidents.

Car insurance policy holders are required to have a ten thousand dollar allowance for personal injury protection to pay for medical care in event one injures someone in an accident. In fraud cases, the participants stage an accident, and get a police report. They then bill the company for medical services they did provide.

Lieutenant JD Salome states that staged accident participants go to shoddy clinics where they’re administered treatment. The clinics bill the insurance companies up to $10,000 dollars per person per incident so insurance companies end up coughing up a log in the long run.

The investigators say there is a rise in insurance fraud, which is gaining greater popularity over mortgage and workers compensation fraud. For the average person, this will cost them more because the more insurance companies pay out, the more they have to raise personal insurance premium.

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