Allstate Awarded $7 Million Verdict in Imaging Scam

The Los Angeles County Superior Court has found Long Beach chiropractor, Daniel H. Dahan , D.C., and his business, Progressive Diagnostic Imaging, Inc., guilty of defrauding Allstate Insurance and ordered him to pay the company more than $7 million in civil penalties, assessments and attorneys’ fees. Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige also issued an injunction prohibiting Dahan from owning, operating or working as an employee in any business engaged in the practice of medicine.  According the case Allstate presented, Dahan solicited x-rays from fellow chiropractors and promised that board-certified radiologists would read the films. But the four radiologists whose names appeared on the reports testified that they had not analyzed the x-rays, written the reports or signed the reports. Instead, Dahan used report-writing software to analyze the scans and instructed staff to cut and paste the radiologists’ signatures on the reports to make them appear to be genuine. The reports were then used to support claims sent to Allstate, either directly by Progressive Diagnostic Imaging or by plaintiff attorneys in auto accident cases. The suit was filled as a qui tam action by Allstate on behalf of the People of the State of California because the scam also violated the state’s Insurance Frauds Prevention Act and its Unfair Business Practices Act. In a press release announcing the verdict, Allstate's California Field Vice President Phil Telgenhoff vowed that the insurer "will fight fraud wherever it lives to help protect our customers and keep their insurance costs down."