TRENTON
- Acting Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Division of Criminal Justice Director Gregory
A. Paw announced that a West Orange plastic
surgeon was sentenced today for twice making
false claims that he was totally disabled
from the practice of plastic surgery and
entitled to obtain disability benefits from
an insurance company.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, W. Lance Kollmer, 57, of Mendham,
Morris County, was ordered by Superior Court
Judge Joseph C. Cassini III of Essex County
to serve three years in state prison. Kollmer
pleaded guilty on May 8 to two counts of
second-degree theft by deception. He was
sentenced to three years on each charge,
with the terms to be served concurrently.
Pursuant
to the plea agreement, Kollmer also signed
consent orders to pay $925,000 in restitution
and a civil insurance fraud penalty of $100,000.
Kollmer
previously surrendered his license to practice
medicine and surgery in New Jersey, and
he remains without a license.
Kollmer
admitted at his guilty plea hearing that
in 1999 he submitted a false disability
claim to Sentry Insurance Company under
a business overhead expense policy for the
expenses associated with running his medical
practice. Kollmer claimed that he was disabled
and unable to perform surgery. An investigation
conducted by the Division of Criminal Justice
- Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor revealed
that Kollmer continued to perform surgery
during the time he claimed he was doing
no surgeries. Most of the surgeries were
reconstructive procedures performed on trauma
victims in various hospital emergency rooms.
Kollmer also admitted that in 2001 he submitted
a second false disability claim to U.S.
Life/American General Insurance Company.
He again sought reimbursement for office
overhead expenses associated with his medical
practice and benefits under a separate long-term
disability policy, alleging he sustained
a totally disabling injury to his rotator
cuff in a volleyball game on March 13, 2001,
approximately one month before he surrendered
his license to practice medicine.
The
state’s investigation revealed that
Kollmer sustained the injury to his rotator
cuff after he surrendered his license to
practice medicine, at a time when he was
no longer covered under his disability policies.
As a result of these false claims, Kollmer
admitted collecting approximately $925,000
from Sentry and U.S. Life/American.
“It
is particularly troubling that a person
licensed to practice medicine and surgery
would steal from insurance companies,”
said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown. “This type of insurance fraud
raises costs for doctors as well as patients.”
State
Investigators Lisa Shea and Janet Wustefeld,
Civil Investigators George Douglas and Chris
Gasbarro, Administrative Analysts Kathleen
Ratliff and Paula Carter, and Deputy Attorney
General Michael A. Monahan handled the case
for the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.
Prosecutor
Brown noted that some important cases have
started with anonymous tips. People who
are concerned about insurance cheating and
have information about a fraud can report
it anonymously by calling the toll-free
hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD
or visiting the Web at www.NJInsuranceFraud.org.
State regulations permit an award to be
paid to an eligible person who provides
information that leads to an arrest, prosecution
and conviction for insurance fraud.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
#
# # |
