“Disability benefit recipients playing golf or working on their bench press at the gym? Such images of fraud may not be all that uncommon to seasoned employers, but in the case of the Long Island Railroad, it occurred on an uncommonly massive scale,” write Damon M. Gruber, Todd M. Jones, and Paul J. Kilminster, attorneys in Goldberg Segalla’s Workers’ Compensation Practice Group.

“The railroad’s response to the widespread disability retirement scandal that first emerged in 2008 was equally monumental, resulting in more than 30 arrests and making a bold statement in its lasting effects: A year after the initial arrests, disability applications at the LIRR were down almost 50 percent. Further, 600-700 retirees who had previously been collecting $2 million in benefits per month had their benefits suspended and were forced to reapply.”

In this article, Damon, Todd, and Paul explore how the investigation and prosecution of this highly publicized fraud scheme provide a template for analyzing similar disability and pension systems, such as workers’ compensation, where attempts at fraud by employees, health care providers, and even employers are frequent.

The article provides practical tips on how employers can identify early indicators of fraud, recognize problematic patterns, and reduce the potential for fraudulent activity in the future.

Read the article here:

• Damon M. Gruber, Todd M. Jones, and Paul J. Kilminster, “Fighting Disability Fraud: How the Long Island Railroad Could Be a Model for All Employers,” USLAW Magazine, Fall/Winter 2014