The Daily Gazette: GUEST COLUMN: From Police Scanner to Premium Scammer

By: State Sen. Patricia Fahy and Assemblymember Gary Pretlow

magine you are picking up your child after soccer practice and, as luck would have it, you find yourself in a minor fender-bender.

That day, someone who heard about your minor crash on the police scanner shows up and slips a flyer into your hand: It promises “cash for your time” and “no insurance hassles.”

Sounds good, right? Before you know it, you’re being steered to a lawyer you’ve never met, and into a medical facility you’ve never heard of, with bills that are anything but free, receiving treatment for injuries you didn’t know you had.

That moment is something too many New Yorkers have experienced.

“RUNNERS” FRAUD SCAM

Often intently listening to police scanners in parking lots, browsing social media or showing up in hospital rooms, what are known as “runners” are directing individuals into healthcare facilities — not to receive needed care, but to drive up bills and line the pockets of predatory providers.

A “runner” is a person who is paid for each patient they send to a fraudulent provider, and combined, they result in about $200-$300 more on your car insurance premium every year.

Even worse, these runners are known to prey on vulnerable populations, including immigrants and unhoused people, to convince them to cause accidents and commit fraud intentionally.

Runners are also the ones hiring people to stage accidents, like the one that went viral in 2024 down in New York City on the Belt Parkway.

Take this recent example in Long Island: A federal RICO lawsuit was filed alleging that an interconnected network of lawyers, doctors, and recruits on Long Island orchestrated more than 70 staged slip-and-fall and other accidents to file false injury claims and direct victims to complicit medical providers for unnecessary treatments, driving up insurance costs.

With New Yorkers paying some of the highest, if not the highest, rates for automobile insurance, this type of fraud is reaching crisis levels.

LEGISLATION PROPOSED

Right now, this type of fraud continues because there are few to no consequences under New York State law.

That is why we are proud to have introduced S.4874/A.7392, legislation that would finally crack down on the procurement of patients by runners and those who hire them, closing a troubling gap in our anti-fraud laws.

This legislation is patterned on New Jersey’s runner law and the federal Medicare-Medicaid Anti-Kickback Act, both of which make it a crime to intentionally pay for patient referrals.

This type of fraud drives up costs for all of us in the form of higher premiums.

Unfortunately, insurance fraud schemes like these are often difficult to uncover, track and, ultimately, hold accountable.

Several schemes involve staged procedures, including manufactured imaging or worse, medically unnecessary surgeries, and networks of actors using vulnerable patients’ information to submit false claims.

When victims are recruited by runners, they can become unwitting participants in these scams or, worse, get pushed into unnecessary care.

WIDESPREAD PROBLEM

We know these are not isolated incidents.

Reports from insurance watchdog groups indicate that no-fault and health care fraud reports—the category where runners and staged accidents frequently appear — have accounted for the vast majority of fraud cases reported in recent years.

Fraudulent claims flip the script on proper medicine and proper care: instead of helping people recover, they can turn recovery into fraudulent revenue.

That’s why our solution is key; This bill creates a clear criminal offense for acting as a runner or soliciting or employing a runner to procure patients or clients, aligning New York’s law with how fraud actually plays out on the ground and finally giving prosecutors the tools they need to hold bad actors accountable.

Moreover, it distinguishes between unlawful procurement for the sake of profit and legitimate support, such as a family member helping a loved one navigate appointment schedules.

What we are targeting is the profit-driven middleman who ‘chase ambulances’ that give runners their name, not concerned friends or caregivers.

WE ALL PAY FOR FRAUD

When fraudsters exploit patients, every policyholder pays more; when insurers are defrauded, taxpayers bear the burden; and most importantly, vulnerable people are put at risk. When you can’t trust some attorneys and doctors, public trust suffers.

And a time when Americans and New Yorkers remain laser-focused on lowering the cost of living and addressing affordability, this is one of the most commonsense steps New York can take to lower one of the biggest burdens facing working families: car insurance.

This legislation provides real relief to New Yorkers while protecting their health and wallets at a time when car insurance rates are out of control.

In any effort to rein in out-of-control car insurance costs in this year’s budget, addressing the scourge of runners must be a key part of that effort.

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State Sen. Patricia Fahy of Albany represents the 46th Senate District, which includes Albany, Schenectady and Montgomery counties. Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow represents the 89th Assembly District, which includes Mt. Vernon and Yonkers.