Workers Comp

Judge dismisses $18M in liens in medical provider fraud case

Louise Esola

October 02, 2020 Reprints

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An administrative law judge with the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board has dismissed liens valued at $18 million filed by a convicted medical provider, which the California Department of Industrial Relations said Thursday falls in line with state reforms that aim to crack down on provider fraud.

The department suspended Michael Barri, then a chiropractor in San Clemente, California, from participating in California’s workers comp system after he pled guilty in 2016 to federal conspiracy charges and admitted receiving $206,506 in illegal kickbacks for referring dozens of patients for spinal surgeries and other medical services, according to a statement from the department.

Mr. Barri challenged his suspension in court and pursued collection of $18,161,362 in liens he had filed in 944 individual workers comp cases through the entities he controlled, according to the statement.

A state appeals court denied Mr. Barri’s plea in 2018 and upheld that the anti-fraud legislation enacted in 2017 led to his suspension, sending the matter of the liens back to the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.

“The anti-fraud statutes… were designed to prevent convicted medical providers from continuing to file lien claims and profiting from fraud,” state Division of Workers’ Compensation Administrative Director George Parisotto said in the statement. “The dismissal of millions of dollars’ worth of liens shows the strategy to fight those schemes works.”