Allstate claims fraud at Valley chiropractic clinics
McALLEN - One of the nation's top insurers has sued a group of Rio Grande Valley chiropractic clinics and lawyers alleging they were involved in a multimillion-dollar fraud operation.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Dallas, Allstate Insurance Co. accuses Arlington-based Chiropractic Strategies Group Inc. and its associated clinics of soliciting patients, encouraging them to undergo unnecessary treatments and then persuading them to file personal injury lawsuits against the insurance company.
The Valley clinics are part of a larger network with branches across Texas, Ohio, Indiana and Alabama, Allstate spokesman Bill Mellander said.
"This is one of the largest insurance fraud investigations that Allstate has ever undertaken," he said. "The investigation is exhaustive because it has to be right."
Several phone calls to a Chiropractic Strategies spokesw-oman, who is also named in the lawsuit, went unreturned and attempts to locate company officials at local clinics were unsuccessful.
So far, no attorneys have filed with the court to represent Chiropractic Strategies or any of its Valley clinics.
A 67-page complaint filed in the case alleges Chiropractic Strategies clinics targeted hundreds of potential patients by combing through vehicle accident reports at local police stations.
Allstate alleges telemarketers encouraged the parties to visit company clinics for free evaluations, where chiropractors - and sometimes unlicensed assistants - diagnosed them with injuries ranging from spinal problems to bone misalignments.
In many cases, the extent of the injury was exaggerated and the treatments unnecessary, the insurance company alleges. Allstate claims that once treatment was completed, patients were referred to a law firm for potential personal injury lawsuits.
Allstate claims Chiropractic Strategies and associated businesses are responsible for more than $10 million in fraudulent payments over the past six years.
"Individuals who conduct fraud generally do so because they think that they are digging into the deep pockets of a big insurance company," Mellander said. "But the reality is they're not. They're stealing from you and me."
Although Chiropractic Strategies operates clinics across the country, the Valley has become a hub of operations, Mellander said.
The company has managed five past and current facilities here including Dove Pointe Chiropractic in McAllen and Weslaco Chiropractic on South Texas Boulevard, he said.
Three lawyers the suit names as defendants reside in South Texas.
One of them, Eugene X. Mercier, has an extensive history of disciplinary reprimands from the State Bar of Texas.
Mercier could not be reached for comment. So far, no attorney has filed with the court to represent Mercier.
He also has been convicted of theft and conspiracy to commit barratry - a third-degree felony charge aimed at lawyers who solicit clients rather than waiting for them to come forward on their own.
Mercier, a Corpus Christi-based attorney who once operated offices in McAllen, Harlingen and Brownsville, was convicted by a Hidalgo County jury in April 2002 and disbarred.
