Passenger Trains > 119 Amtrak employees implicated in healthcare fraud

Fraudulent healthcare claims, employees paid to sign blank treatment cliams forms.  Amtrak OIG noticed anomalies in the medical claim records and followed up.

Bergen Record:At least 119 Amtrak employees conspired with health care providers in New York to bilk the company's health care plan of more than $12 million between 2019 and 2022, Amtrak's Office of Inspector General said May 7.On May 6, the OIG issued an investigative report to Amtrak, detailing this widespread scheme.

Paywall possible:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2025/05/07/amtrak-employees-involved-in-criminal-health-care-conspiracy-oig/83492749007/

That  is  why  it  is  foolish  to  eliminate  OIG  inspectors. Investigators.  Their  work  pays  off.

119 employees is very likely just the tip of the iceberg.   They are the ones who got caught.

"...a serious lapse in basic ethics...a troubling workforce culture, at least in the Northeast region, in which blatant criminal behavior was somehow normalized."  -Inspector General



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/25 13:57 by GenePoon.

so at this point you almost want to start with a clean slate, employee wise

same thing happened a few years ago i thought to amtrak



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/25 15:19 by dan.

cutboy1958 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That  is  why  it  is  foolish  to
>  eliminate  OIG  inspectors. Investigators.
>  Their  work  pays  off.

Remember that as Amtrak President, Joe Boardman ran off Inspector General Ted Alves with the cooperation of the Amtrak Board of Directors. 

Where does the rot REALLY begin????

The violations appear to have occurred while there was an OIG. Perhaps that's why all of them and the upper DOJ were dumped.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 119 employees is very likely just the tip of the
> iceberg.   They are the ones who got caught.
>
> "...a serious lapse in basic ethics...a troubling
> workforce culture, at least in the Northeast
> region, in which blatant criminal behavior was
> somehow normalized."  -Inspector General

I have relatives who work in hospitals and such, and they tell me health care fraud is rampant. These are people
who are everything from LPN's to MD's, who would have more knowledge of what's going on than your average health
care consumer.

"..a serious lapse in basic ethics..."....."troubling workforce culture, at least in the Northeast region.." is true, but
the same things are happening with the healthcare biz in the Great Lakes region where I Iive, and I'm sure other regions too...





 

More waste, fraud and abuse? In a federal agency? Oh, the horrors, even though many still decry efforts of those looking to root it out. It runs deep. In fact, the term 'deep state' applies here. There is an entire metric of society that survives on defrauding others. Its usually the ones that cry foul when there is an effort to root it out.

Posted from Android

Took them how many years to uncover this?  So what was the OIG doing for all those years?  Did the employees and managers think that the cash was a gift from Heaven?
Corruption and waste must be rampant when it becomes that easy to steal so blatantly.
First, start with lie detector tests for all employees and managers.  No lie detector test; no job.  Then, publish for new job applicants.

To play devils advocate here....

Did something change with their medical policy in this time period that would have given the employees a "reason" to do this?  Just curious.

It could just be one person got away with it and everyone else jumped in...but sometimes there is something that caused it too.  Not saying that makes it right, but it gives some sort of explanation.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have time to do all of that - it's all I can do to get normal meds refilled without having to go through 10 steps....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/25 17:34 by amtrak8.

Having worked in banking all of my business career, I encountered fraud at all levels:  Customers, employees, managers, children of bank managers, bank owners, board members, bank presidents.  No level left unscathed.  Pretty disgusting, actually.
Power may corrupt, but money changes people.
 

Chiropractic, neck and back pains, disabling work injuries etc are notoriously hard to manage from a claims standpoint. Two of the crooks copped to recruiting other employees for "easy money".

Posted from Android

amtrak8 Wrote:

> It could just be one person got away with it and
> everyone else jumped in...but sometimes there is
> something that caused it too.  Not saying that
> makes it right, but it gives some sort of
> explanation.

==================================================

Some of those employees accused also are believed to have recruited other Amtrak workers to join in the fraud.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/25 19:10 by GenePoon.

In over 30 years at AT&T I saw stuff like this come up every couple of years. Unfortunately it has become a common scam. USPS has had the same problem too.

Long Island Rail Road had a similar isssue a decade ago, with employees looting the retirement disability plan. 

Two or three cooperating "company appointed doctors" certified that retiring employees were partly or fully disabled.  At one point, 95% of retiring employees were determined to be disabled.  Their version of the OIG noticed this, and investigated.  The US Attorney gave the participating employees the choice of paying back the $$$ wrongly taken, or taking their chances in court with possible jail time and loss of pension.  Most took the deal.  The doctors and the ringleaders (who got kickbacks from the employees) went to jail.

Not all fraud is hedge fund titans ripping off pension plans and looting companies.